International

Hello World,

One month already? They said time would fly, but I didn’t believe it would go this quickly. I am positioned in Northern India at an organization called Avani. Avani is focused on capacity building through the implementation of ‘green’ technologies. The adjustment period for me did not set in until recently because during the first week and a half of my stay my schedule was very unstructured. Since meeting with my supervisors, I have been given enough work to make up for the relaxing week. I have been assigned the task of working on Avani’s marketing and promotion via the Internet. I have created a Twitter page, updated the Facebook page on a daily basis, and am re-designing both the retail and main webpages. I will also be working on the National Geographic Action Atlas while I am here. For this project I am responsible for creating a project page for Avani’s ongoing work. This includes solar energy, natural dyeing, organic farming, and more.

I am starting to feel a lot more at ease since my arrival. I craved structure in the beginning so that I could fall into a daily rhythm. The days in the Himalayas often start beautifully, with the sun rising over the snowy mountain tops, temperatures warming ever so slowly. We help prepare food in the morning, while sipping our gingery chai. I retreat to my little office cubby to begin my daily work. The evenings are also lovely as I have now entered a nightly ritual of watching the sun go down, and talking with my fellow Indian interns. I have found this part of my day to be extremely important as it is at times difficult to eat, sleep, and work in the same place. By getting out once a day I can remove my thoughts and body from work, and simply enjoy the beautiful surroundings.

The days are going by fast now that I have fallen into a rhythm. I need to consciously remind myself to take more in, because although it still feels like I have a ton of time, I know when the end of March comes I’ll be wondering where it all went. I can only imagine how fast these next couple of weeks shall pass …

Namaste! It has now been 3 weeks since I arrived in India and I am starting to relax into my surroundings. My experience here thus far has been a rewarding challenge: I have exited my comfort zone in many ways, but continue to learn in the process. I will be doing my internship at an organization called Seva Mandir, which means “service to the temple”, based in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Seva Mandir is a well organized and impressive organization, working in 7 different sectors, including education, health, natural resource development, and women and children, and reaching over 600 villages. I have been assigned a research project looking at the rate of birth registration in the rural areas around Udaipur, Rajasthan, India and examining the reasons why parents choose to register or not register their children. This project will utilize basically every research skill I have been taught in school, including creating a survey, piloting the survey, conducting interviews, coding and data entry, data analysis, and report writing. This is truly a chance to practice, learning and test knowledge! Yesterday was my first time out in the field with a fellow University of Ottawa student and intern, Sara, and it was exciting – we piloted our survey with various health workers and families in a rural village, adding additional questions and tailoring our questions as we went along. We got a wealth of information and discovered so much about Seva Mandir, rural India, and birth registration. It is now time to review the information that we gathered and go back to the drawing board to make sure that we have all the necessary questions on our survey. It is incredibly interesting to put into practice what I’ve been reading about in school and gain this amazing experience in how to conduct research which will surely be an asset when I go on to do my masters. It’s also incredibly interesting to see how perspectives differ between people even from the same village and to have the chance to spend time with people that are from such different walks of life.

Perhaps one of the most perplexing observations of my trip thus far has been how different and yet similar everything is between India and Canada. I have met so many warm, generous people here in India and I feel that there is so much commonality among all people, yet there are drastic material differences when compared to Canada. Poverty here is much more visible among all segments of society and not as well hidden as it is in Canada. Simultaneously, cell reception is drastically better in India in comparison: during our fieldwork in a remote area, there was perfect cell reception, where there wouldn’t have been any reception in a comparably remote location in Canada. The differences in attitudes, mindsets, livelihoods, and material objects between India and Canada continue to amaze me, both positively and sometimes negatively. There are positive and negative aspects to all places and things and I feel it is important to remain critical of the structures and systems in place at various scales while not becoming pessimistic or disillusioned with the context you are surrounded by. This internship is such an amazing experience to witness diversity, culture, development, and the many varying realities faced by Indians. I am reminded of the video we watched in our pre-departure training by a Nigerian novelist about the multiple stories and truths that exist in every country each time I walk out my door.

Namaste!

Je suis arrivée dans les montagnes du Nord de l’Inde il y a un peu plus de deux semaines.  La vie ici est radicalement différente de Delhi. Bien que la pauvreté soit un problème autant à la ville qu’à la campagne, les possibilités d’emploi sont nettement réduites dans cette région. Les pratiques traditionnelles qui valorisent le rôle des femmes dans la société kumaoni sont laissées de côté pour des produits fabriqués industriellement qui sont beaucoup moins coûteux. Ainsi, la mondialisation, comme partout ailleurs, apporte son lot de problèmes quant au développement des régions rurales. La migration vers les villes demeure l’enjeu central qui provoque une trop grande offre de main-d’oeuvre alors que la demande est mince, perpétuant la pauvreté et l’exploitation. Les solutions à la pauvreté passant par l’urbanisation ne sont donc pas profitables de façon équitable, ni durables dans le temps.

C’est dans cet optique qu’Avani, l’organisme pour lequel je fais du travail bénévole, travaille fort pour créer des moyens de subsistance qui reconnaissent le savoir local traditionnel et qui protège les écosystèmes magnifiques de la région des himalaya centrales. Cela donne un mélange de technologies vertes tels panneaux solaires, gazéifieur d’aiguilles de pin et recyclage d’eau. Également, Avani comprend tout un secteur textile équitable, fait à la main, utilisant des agents colorants naturels tels le curcuma. Plus récemment, il y a eu instauration d’une maternelle et de formations sur la santé. Avec cette vision holiste et englobante du développement, la dynamique au campus central est vraiment spéciale. Plusieurs familles, étudiants et voyageurs vivent en communauté ensemble et participent aux tâches journalières à accomplir. Les castes sociales de l’Inde dont j’ai tant entendu parler semblent se dissiper avec cette atmosphère de camaraderie et d’entraide. Ce n’est pas pour rien que l’organisme se nomme Avani, nom qui veut dire «Terre» en sanskrit. Jusqu’à présent, avec tout ce que je vois ici, Avani me redonne une vision positive du développement qui avait été assombrie par le cynisme académique au sujet de la mondialisation.

Mon travail à Avani consistera à aider à la rédaction d’un plan de commercialisation pour les nouveaux crayons et peintures faits de pigments naturels. Je devrai également aider à l’élaboration d’une liste de commandes et faire la promotion des produits. Vu que j’ai eu une formation musicale, j’enseignerai des chansons et certains principes de base de musique aux enfants à la petit école sur le campus. J’ai aussi comme but d’apprendre le plus de hindi possible. J’enseignerai donc aussi l’anglais à certains employés ici et en retour ils m’apprendront un peu de hindi. Une autre tâche sera de faire un inventaire complet des produits offerts à Avani. Ceci se fera en équipe avec Brittany, une autre stagiaire de l’Université d’Ottawa ici avec moi. Mes tâches semblent encore très vagues et  peu définies, ce qui m’empêche de travailler de façon efficace. Je suis certaine qu’avec le temps les choses rentreront dans l’ordre.

Je ne pense pas que j’apporterai beaucoup à cet organisme qui est déjà bien instauré, mais j’espère tout de même donner un bon coup de pouce. Cette expérience n’est pas faite pour changer la vie des gens de la région et pour apporter le «développement» tant attendu, mais bien pour que ceux-ci, par leur simplicité et leur holisme rempli de vérité, influencent la mienne.

C’est une première pour moi dans ce blogue ! Namaste, je m’appelle Sara, je me trouve présentement en Inde, précisément à Udaipur dans l’État du Rajasthan. Je poursuis un stage organisé par la faculté des sciences sociales de l’Université d’Ottawa (Canada) avec l’organisme Seva Mandir ( très connu ici à Udaipur). Ce stage est sous l’égide de l’Organisation non gouvernementale Jeunesse Canada Monde.

Cet immense pays présente sans aucun doute des traits très encouragent de progrès de développement surtout concernant la science et la technologie.  Également, ce pays représente une société de culture intéressante à étudier et à explorer non seulement en rapport aux différentes religions pratiquées, mais aussi concernant les nombreuses traditions à travers le pays. Il faut aussi mentionner l’importance du taux démographique qui représente néanmoins une énergie humaine.

Après près de 4 semaines en Inde, le choc culturel disparaît tranquillement et une routine s’est installée après avoir pris connaissance de mon mandat auprès de l’organisme. En fait, je travaille pour le département de la santé, où il nous est confié de collecter l’information concernant l’enregistrement des enfants nés depuis la dernière année auprès du gouvernement. (Universal birth registration) C’est une épreuve assez intéressante puisqu’il s’agit de promouvoir, de défendre et concrétiser le droit des enfants. En effet, comme nous le savons, dès la naissance chaque personne a le droit d’avoir une identité, car c’est l’affirmation de son existence au sein d’une société. C’est aussi la reconnaissance de son individualité et de ce qui la différencie de ses prochains. L’Inde étant le deuxième pays le plus peuplé au monde fait face à une situation de pauvreté alarmante qui touche principalement les enfants. En se cens, le développement des enfants demeure un sujet de préoccupation, et pour ce faire nous devions de prime abord apporter une attention particulière à leur identité et nationalité pour que ces derniers puissent bénéficier de leurs droits.

Puis, ce pays déplore l’un des plus hauts taux de non-enregistrement d’enfants dans le monde et cela varie considérablement entre les milieux urbains et ruraux.

Étudiante en conflits et droits humains, ce projet m’inspire profondément et attire ma curiosité !!!

Pour tout dire, ce stage est une excellente expérience d’apprentissage qui me permettra d’approfondir des connaissances et éventuellement de préparer une carrière professionnelle riche et productive

Hi! My name is Kristina, and I am a fourth year student in International Studies and Modern Languages, Régime d’immersion. I found out about the International Internship Program in my first year of university at the President’s Brunch during U101 week, and haven’t looked back since!

During first and second year, I went to the information sessions about the program, and spoke to the coordinators many times about how the internship would fit into my course of studies. Finally, it was time to apply!

The internship program appealed to me because it is cost effective, and you gain real work experience at a NGO in the international field. Perhaps the hardest part is deciding where you want to go and what you want to do!

It is hard for me to pinpoint the specific time in my life I started wanting to go to India, but for quite some time now, I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to go. I wanted to see the many faces of India, and savour all of the sights, sounds, and of course, tastes!

Now all of this planning has finally become a reality! I am living in a neighborhood just twenty minutes south west of Delhi, in a boarding house with seventeen other Indian students and professionals. I walk to work in the morning, and am just getting started on some major language projects there.

This is the first trip that I have taken where I have been so aware of myself, and the impact I make in society. During our pre-departure training in Canada, we oriented ourselves by talking about our privilege, and how we would face some ethical problems during our internships. Although this second fact has proven true, it has been great to keep in contact with the other interns and of course, the coordinators for discussion. I think every trip you make should have this type of preparation. I have learned so much about myself, both positive and negative, and I am only three weeks in!

During our pre-departure training, our professor showed us a TED talk by Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie called “The Danger of a Single Story.” She talked about how people too frequently have a single story, or a single preconceived idea, of places and people. These single stories, often based on what we see in the media, lead to stereotypes and generalisations about populations and places. She talked about how, for example, when she had written her first novel, her professor told her that it was not authentically African–an ironic statement given that her professor was American. Her professor, she explained, had a single story about Africa and Chimamanda’s novel did not fit into his preconceived image of Africa. In his eyes, therefore, her novel and her depiction of Africa and Africans were not authentic.
I was reminded of this TED talk a couple weeks ago when I was having lunch with some friends in Udaipur. We began conversing with a man sitting at the table next to us who was in India completing a photography project he had started years ago. The man was an experienced traveller who had visited many parts of India many times and felt it necessary to tell us which places were worth visiting and which were not. He felt that Indians from the bigger cities like Delhi and Jaipur were too “western” and told us instead that if we were looking for an authentic Indian experience we were to visit Jaisalmer, a town in the Rajasthan desert, where people live just as they used to. Tradition and difference, to him, I suppose equated authenticity. What I would really like to know is what makes someone or something “authentically” Indian. Why, for example, is an Indian village more authentic than an Indian city? Is it simply because, in many villages, the way of life has changed little and at a slow pace? Is it because Indian cities are too similar to North American cities? I think perhaps he had a single story of what India should be, one that romanticised tradition and village life. Like Chimamanda said in her talk, the existence of a single story leads us to focus on the differences between people rather than the similarities. Tourists and travelers are fascinated by difference. In fact I think a lot of travelers have single sories of their destination countries and when what they find does not correspond to their preconceived images and ideas or is too similar to their own countries, they dismiss it as unauthentic. Yet neither India nor any other country is small and homogeneous enough to fit into a single story.
I am of the belief that everywhere in India is authentically Indian. Moreover, I do not believe that tourists and travelers are capable of judging authenticity, especially when we really only see or experience the tip of the cultural iceberg–the overt pieces such as certain behaviours and practices. Food, dance, music, and language, for example, are all observable or tangible. But what about the underlying, covert pieces of the iceberg? Attitudes, values, beliefs, feelings, myths and perceptions are all things that cannot be observed, let alone understood, by foreigners. And it is these unobservable pieces that comprise the largest part of any culture. So how then, as foreigners, can we determine what is “authentic” and what is not? Well… we can’t. Whenever we go abroad, we carry with us certain expectations, assumptions and preconceived ideas and images of our destination country, but at the end of the day, we have to accept that there will be things we like and some that we do not, there will be things that meet our expectations and some that do not. Most importantly, we, as foreigners, have no place dismissing something as unauthentic when it is not the way we thought it would be, or think it should be. We have to accept that there is always more than a single story and that there are similarities between people and places, no matter where in the world we travel; we should embrace these other stories and embrace not only difference between people and places but also the numerous similarities.

In the end I went to Delhi instead of Jaisalmer but I think my experience in India was “authentic” nonetheless. And after 3 months, I definitely have more than a single story of India.

Hello from the Himalayas!

For my final blog post about my international internship experience, I have decided to insert clips and pieces of my weekly-blog submissions. The weekly-blog writing has been an interesting and valuable exercise. The blogs capture both my professional and personal experiences about the internship. The exercise  provided me the time to think and reflect about my work, the staff, my projects and my living experience up in the hills.

September 22^nd 2011

Even during my short time here so far, I have ran into some ‘development dilemmas’ and issues. Firstly, my supervisor has expressed her own personal dilemmas in working within the community and with the organization. The majority of the staff are from the local areas, however she is from an urban area and can be classified as ‘upper class’. She feels sometimes that the local people and communities resent her presence here, she says ‘they look at me, see that I can speak English, see that I have a laptop… and the women probably think that I am privileged because I do not have to cook, clean, pick the grass, take care of animals and other household duties. My supervisor has a passion for development and has expressed her happiness in living in the mountains as oppose to the cities but again does not want to impose onto the local way of living. I also said that international volunteers and interns probably experience the same feeling. We are coming from a privileged background, even more than she is, coming to help these communities ‘develop’ and although our intentions are genuine, there are dilemmas, challenges and problems with the entire idea of it.

Another interesting observation I have taken in while being here is the inequalities that exist within the country and within the community. For instance, the organization is friends with the people that run a resort in the area. The hotel/resort is beautiful, nice rooms, toilets, running water, flowers and plants everywhere and a cooking staff that make incredible food; all of the luxuries. Over the weekend, the family who owns that resort was having a birthday party celebration for their daughter who was turning eight. There were other families there and there were also guests from the hotel who joined in. Most of the families from India that visit are from the cities, like Mumbai and Delhi who are looking to get away from the hustle and bustle into the calm and peace of the mountain area. There was plenty of tea, two birthday cakes, a dinner and a band from the city playing. Yesterday, we had a picnic in the forest with the same group. As the hotel staff brought over the table and silverware to serve lunch, just over the hill, there was a family’s home. Their houses were made of grass and plastic materials. There were no floors, only the ground of mud. Firewood was collected, they had one hen, and the children wore run-down clothing. Meanwhile, the families and children from the lunch were wearing sunglasses, nice mostly Western clothing and holding expensive cameras and bags. So, I felt pretty uneasy about the whole situation, meaning I felt guilty. The whole experience was an eye-opener of the inequalities that exist within the country.

October 5^th 2011

Dr. Sushil, the owner and founder of Aarohi has returned from his traveling. Finally, he is in the office so we, (the international interns) can pick his brain for various information. He is a great guide and compassionate about his work, the people, his staff and development work. He has been further guiding all of his on our work and giving us valuable input. The other day I was sitting in the main office and one of the staff members said that Dr.Sushil wanted to see me. I went down to the clinic to him examining a pregnant patient. He took the time to translate the entire session in English for me, and in Hindi for the patient and for a staff member who is training to a midwife. He ran through a general pre-natal check up. Blood pressure, weight and pulse rate was to be taken. Also, the abdomen exam’s purpose was to feel for the uterus. I have told the staff here that I will study nursing in the future and I am so glad that Dr.Sushil acted upon my interests!! It was a real treat.

October 17^th 2011

I am officially half-way through my internship! Everything is going well. Aarohi had its annual HAAT festival just recently. The festival began on October 13th and will end today, October 18th. The festival brings many people from the community to enjoy dancing, singing, sweets, samosas and all kinds of shops. Aarohi also has a shop set up to sell our products such as soaps and culinary herbs. The evening programs have been very entertaining! Full of both local and regional Indian dancing and singing. Last night we were surprised to hear a hip-hop song with three people performing a hip-hop routine! The other interns and I were the only (women) bouncing around to the song. The men and boys at the festival have proved to be quite rowdy! In fact, Seema, the wife of the owner, was quick to rush us out of the festival when it was getting late, because she said the men will get more and more rowdy, especially when they are drinking alcohol. This type of environment can be considered unsafe for girls and women. Despite this, it has been wonderful to see the community to come out and enjoy each other’s company along with the entertainment. The staff has been telling me that this festival is really the only event that happens around here, so it provides families a nice break from the day-to-day routine.

October 29^th 2011

I recently went a small trip with the other international interns to Rishikesh. Rishikesh has been called the Yoga capital of the world and has been made famous by the Beatles, who stayed at an Ashram there. The trip began with a taxi ride downtown to the train station, followed by an overnight train. I find it quite hard to sleep on the overnight trains, mostly because of the frequent stops that it makes. The stops also provide vendors the time to come in the train and yell out things like chips and chai, even if its 2 am. The train arrived at Haridwar station, and from there, we waited around the in the train station with the intention to catch a bus up to Rishikesh. We walked outside the station in the morning, with all sorts of drivers swarming us to take us anywhere for an over-priced cost. I have learned the average price difference for taxi rides for foreigners and for locals, and it is quite drastic. Anyway, we found out there was an express train to Rishikesh, so we settled for that instead. On the evening of Diwali, we visited an Ashram that was conducing a puja (ritual, offering) to Lord Rama. There were prayers, a lot of singing and offerings of sweets to the Lord. The ceremony was conducted along the ganges, the river and was really beautiful. They also lit lanterns and set them out on the river. What a sight!

November 2^nd 2011

The staff at Aarohi have nicknamed me Chai girl and believe that in another life, I must have been Indian. They say this because I accept all offers of chai (which can be up to 5 a day), love the food, including the spicy pickles, carry the kurta clothing well and have mustered some of my own Indian cooking skills. I have managed, after many attempts, to make a chapatti. I have watched the cook make them, and it looks pretty simple. Brown flour, mixed with water, roll out the dough, put on the pan and then over the propane fire. However, it is not that easy. Finally, my roommates who have been subject to all of my cooking experiments, said last night “you know, this tastes like an Indian could have made this!”

November 12^th 2011

Over my internship, I have also had the time to think about development; what it means, what it involves and what I have learned about my program during this experience. Firstly, I would personally encourage International Development students to enroll in the international internship course, because I feel that I have learned more doing this field-work class than I learned reading, analyzing, researching about the topic at the university. Although I am not dismissing the learning and importance of these courses, I am simply saying that ‘doing’ development is different than ‘learning’ about it, and doing it, is worthwhile. And from doing development, what I have come to realize is that, in this field, one individual is so small. For example, I am in one country, within one state, within one local area, within one organization that services a select local population with specific programs. I teach English to the school children to help them improve their lives and future prospects. I teach a total of 30 children, out of a population of 1 billion. However, although each of our own work is small, change begins with ourselves, with the individual. I read the news recently to find out that global population has reached 7 billion people. And although the field of international development seems like a big machine, intended to benefit large portions of the world, I have realized for myself that I have done well in a day, if I can positively impact one person’s life. Just one person, out of 7 billion.

November 18^th 201

This afternoon, I will be doing my wrap-up presentation. The presentation has some information about myself, (since I never did it at the beginning), the work I have completed and my 20 best pictures during my experience here. We have been doing extra social events this week, because of my departure. Last night, Puneet and the two other interns and I, went over to Premula’s house for dinner. We had plenty of food for dinner including chapattis, a palak/spinach dish, daal, an eggplant dish and a paneer-vegetable dish. For dessert, Premula made us all some hot-chocolate and also had some sweets for us. We all sat around the fire and chatted about all kinds of things, including development challenges in the region. Premula is a free-lance worker who built a house in the village about 15 years ago, next to the owner of Aarohi. She lives in Delhi, but likes to come to the hills every once in a while to escape the city and to contribute to rural development. She is skeptical of people building and developing in the area. Politicians and ‘richer’ Indians are pushing to develop hotels, cottages and large homes in the hills as their vacation getaways. She is worried about the impact on the environment and the extra traffic in the region, especially if they do not give back to the community. She spoke of one man, who is building a house in the area. Apparently, he is an advocate for rural development and believes that local knowledge and labor should be used when building. However, he has ignored his own philosophy and has hired urban labor and is using non-local materials for the construction of the house.

The staff at Aarohi are convinced that I will return to Aarohi later on in the future. They say I have too much “Indian-blood” to not return to the country. I am very glad that I have been invited back and have been offered various homes to stay at, if I return. I also hope that the local population can maintain the beauty of this area by avoiding the development of too many buildings. If however, there is development and construction, hopefully these people will contribute to the local economy and development of the hills and its people.

I am so happy that I have decided to partake in the international internship course at OttawaU. The internship is my last course in my undergraduate degree of International Development and Globalization and it was the perfect way to end my studies.  I have learned countless amounts of things about development, about life and about myself during the experience.

Thank you to the University and Faculty of Social Science for offering and facilitating the internship program.

Lorsque l’on observe les nombreuses différences qui existent entre provinces et régions indiennes, on réalise à quel point il est juste de décrire ce pays comme diversifié et en vanter la richesse culturelle. Le plus remarquable c’est que, malgré de nombreux  facteurs historiques, géographiques et politiques (qui généralement poussent vers une homogénéisation culturelle), cette diversité survit même au sein de frontières communes.

Ce qui est fascinant, c’est d’observer aujourd’hui la facilité avec laquelle cette chose que l’on appelle mondialisation vient, presque avec un air moqueur, écraser ces quelques milliers d’années de résistance. Bien sur on me dira que si les moghols, ayant longtemps occupé certaines régions de l’Inde actuelle, avaient accès à des outils tels qu’Internet, l’Inde serait possiblement aujourd’hui à majorité musulmane. Peut-être même que si les moyens de transport avaient été plus rapides et efficaces, il n’y aurait pas tant de différences entre les Sud le Nord de l’Inde. La question n’est pas là, ténacité culturelle ou simples limites ‘’techniques’’, le fait est qu’aujourd’hui les choses changent, et vite.

La région de Kumaon, où je me trouve actuellement, est une partie assez  reculée de l’Inde se trouvant dans les Himalaya centrales. Le transport y est difficile et pour beaucoup il faut marcher plusieurs heures avant d’atteindre une route parfois bloquée en raison des pluies. Cela, sans compter que, pour des régions plus éloignées, il faut rouler jusqu’à 12 heures en jeep partagée avant d’arriver à une gare de train.

Pourtant, ces obstacles semblent insuffisants pour faire échec à l’invasion de la mondialisation quand on voit comment les habits, pratiques et le savoir local se transforment en contact de nouveaux concepts ‘’importés’’.

Les habitants de la région de Kumaon ont historiquement toujours été très connectés à la terre et la forêt, particulièrement à cette dernière qui permettait, en offrant plantes médicinales, matériaux pour l’artisanat ou tout simplement du bois pour la cuisson, une certaine subsistance dans la région.

Tandis que les hommes travaillaient généralement la terre, les femmes passaient la majorité de leur temps dans la forêt à récolter ces diverses ressources, leurs tâches étaient complémentaires et la région était autosuffisante.

Vint le régime britannique avec, comme bagage, de nouvelles idéologies, une éducation occidentale et un mode de vie différent. Les hommes furent tranquillement poussés hors de la ferme pour travailler dans les villes et villages avoisinants pour chercher un revenu stable désormais vu comme nécessaire. Ainsi les femmes se retrouvent surchargées entre le travail à la ferme et la forêt. Tranquillement, cette nouvelle division du travail devient la nouvelle structure ‘’traditionnelle’’ de la société Kumaonaise.

Avec les projets de développement lancés par le gouvernement ainsi que certaines ONG plus de routes sont construites dans la région, les moyens de transport se multiplient et deviennent plus accessibles. L’effet direct est que les hommes peuvent alors s’éloigner plus, sont plus efficaces, et sont conséquemment plus riches. De plus, avec l’amélioration des transports, il devient aussi possible d’importer divers produits et ressources dans la région.

Avec l’augmentation du revenu des hommes et la disponibilité de ces nombreux nouveaux produits, les femmes sont de plus en plus poussées à acheter ce qui est nécessaire plutôt que récolter les ressources en forêt. Pourquoi produire du savon naturel lorsqu’on peut en acheter ou se soigner avec des plantes lorsque des médicaments efficaces sont disponibles…

Tandis que le rôle des femmes, pilier de la société kumaonaise, est de plus en plus réduit, les hommes eux continuent leur quête de travail à l’extérieur, beaucoup quittent même définitivement vers les grands centres urbains en envoyant de temps à autres une part de leur salaire à leur famille.

Pour couronner le tout, le partage oral de certaines connaissances traditionnelles est interrompu. Les femmes passent moins de temps en forêt et perdent leur unique activité de groupe qui offrait la chance d’interagir avec les autres. Les nouvelles générations ne savent que très peu de chose en ce qui concerne la gestion de la forêt et, alors que la biodiversité de celle-ci est aujourd’hui en danger, plusieurs reconnaissent finalement l’importance du savoir local.

Avec la dégradation de la forêt et l’agriculture en montagne devenant de plus en plus difficile (terre de moins en moins riche et manque d’espace) l’autosuffisance n’est plus possible et cela encourage encore plus les hommes à aller chercher du revenu ailleurs. De plus, la vie en montagne est difficile et l’isolement n’intéresse plus les jeunes qui sont davantage attirés par l’image projetée de la vie urbaine. Le savoir et l’artisanat traditionnel sont abandonnés au profit des produits synthétiques du marché. Dans le secteur du textile par exemple, on préfère suivre l’effet de mode qui s’avère être plus économique (Les produits synthétiques et importés sont moins chers que les produits naturels locaux), ceci est une autre grande perte pour cette région où les techniques traditionnelles de filage et de tissage sont reconnues. L’utilisation de plantes locales pour la teinture du tissu est aussi graduellement négligée.

Autant une critique de la mondialisation et du colonialisme que du développement, ou plutôt de certaines formes de celui-ci, ceci démontre que les besoins de chaque peuple et de chaque société ne sont pas identiques et que, sans la bonne approche, il est possible de bouleverser toutes structures déjà existantes.

Alors que les colons britanniques avaient déjà heurté les bases même de la société kumaonaise, les tentatives de développement dans la région, inappropriées, n’ont fait que complètement achever celles-ci.  Aujourd’hui le rôle de la femme dans la région (ainsi qu’une bonne partie des Himalayas Indiennes où la situation est similaire) est réduit et les inégalités se sont élargies. Les pratiques locales se dissipent et à la place une consommation extensive s’installe. La forêt, ayant longtemps été le berceau de la population locale, décède. Le paysage se transforme soudainement, exposant des déchets qui s’accumulent de jour en jour. Et alors là on se demande, jusqu’à quel point on peut consommer dans une région où il n’y a toujours pas de système de gestion des déchets…

Rajasthan, specifically the district of Udaipur where I am currently volunteering, has some of the highest rates of illiteracy in India; according to the Annual Status of Education Report conducted by Pratham in 2006, the largest NGO working to improve education for underprivileged children in India, less than 50% of Rajasthani children in grades three to five can read the alphabet[1]. However, enrolment rates are high, around 85 to 90 per cent, which means that more than half of children in Rajasthan attending school, but simply not learning. In other words, much work remains to be done to improve the quality of education. In 2009, the Indian Government committed itself to ensuring free education for all children aged 4 to 16 via the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, or simply the Right to Education Act (RTE). Yet no matter the intentions of this act, it fails to address what I think are some of the biggest contributing factors to poor learning outcomes in rural Indian schools. Furthermore, the RTE has unintended distributional consequences and even serves to exacerbate the problems.

While poor academic performance can be rooted in any number of varying issues, I have observed, in my visits to rural government schools in Udaipur, some issues that are particularly common. The material taught in government schools, for instance, is often irrelevant to children in rural areas and the teachers often use teaching methods that encourage little participation from the students, if any. In fact, the teachers seldom seem interested in teaching and often have little respect for the children from tribal, often portrayed as backward, areas. Yet it is easy to understand the teachers’ lack of enthusiasm; many of the teachers I have met reside in the city of Udaipur and travel for two to five hours every day to get to and from work. Teachers rarely choose to work in the villages because they are remote and lack basic facilities and villagers, who more often than not speak only the local dialect or language, do not understand or speak Hindi. Moreover, teachers are not provided with any extra incentive to work in the villages. In essence, there are stereotypes as well as cultural and some times linguistic barriers between students and teachers that I believe are at the root of rural students’ poor academic performance. Yet RTE does not address these barriers or any of the aforementioned issues, for that matter.

Seva Mandir, the organisation for which I am volunteering, has been working with the rural and predominantly tribal populations of Udaipur district of Rajasthan for over 40 years. Through a variety of interventions, Seva Mandir is working to improve children’s education in rural Udaipur by providing children with access to, and generating community demand for, quality education. The organisation’s interventions in education include Shiksha Kendras, non-formal education centres that provide education to out-of-school children up to grade three; Seasonal Residential Learning Camps, 60-day learning camps organised three times a year that target primarily out-of-school working or migrant children; Youth Resource Centres, which provide vocational training to rural youth and encourage them to become active participants in the development process; and Sahyog Kendras, activity centres integrated into government schools that seek to supplement the education children receive from the government teachers and provide extra help to students who are struggling. Moreover, Seva Mandir engages parents and community leaders in conversation about education and encourages them to enrol their children in school and be involved in their children’s education. Following its mandate of participatory development, Seva Mandir also hires local people to teach and run the programs in the villages, which allows communities to play an active role in education their children. Yet because of the RTE, much of the work Seva Mandir is doing may no longer be recognised; in fact it will become illegal for Seva to run its non-formal education programs, namely it’s shiksha kendras and seasonal camps.

The RTE states, “every child of the age of six to fourteen years shall have a right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school till completion of elementary education.”[2] It goes on to define a school by listing certain norms and standards to which it should comply, and states that institutions that do not live up to the government’s norms and standards will not be allowed to operate. Whereas a school should have at least one classroom for every teacher, an office, a kitchen, a library, and separate toilets for boys and girls, the shiksha kendras run by Seva Mandir consist only of one small classroom and are often run by one or two teachers who may teach children of all different ages and learning levels. And while the minimum number of working days in an academic year should be 200 to 220 (depending on the grade) the seasonal camps operate for a total of only 180 days. Moreover, the teachers who work at the seasonal camps and the shiksha kendras are only required to have the equivalent of a high school diploma and have attended additional training by Seva Mandir, which is less than the minimum requirements to become a government school teacher. The RTE also states that teachers must follow and complete the curriculum outlined by the government; however, the seasonal camps and the shiksha kendras are intended only to provide basic literacy and math skills in order to prepare out-of-school children for regular school and, as such, do not follow the same curriculum as the government schools. Nonetheless, children who attend shiksha kendras and proceed to enrol in government schools often out-perform their peers. This is arguably because students are taught according to their academic ability rather than their age, and the teachers hired by Seva Mandir do not have to follow a curriculum and are often more enthusiastic and offer more encouragement to their students than the government teachers. Yet because the RTE defines a school by infrastructure, number of working days, and staff, rather than by learning outcomes, Seva Mandir’s seasonal residential learning camps and shiksha kendras, which do not live up to the government’s norms and standards, do no qualify as schools and might have to close.

The RTE also poses problems for the teachers in the government schools. First and foremost, teachers are not allowed to hold students back until the eighth grade, which means that a student that normally might have benefited from repeating a year of school early on might continue to struggle through the remainder of his or her schooling. Additionally, the strict curriculum outlined by the government leaves teachers with little flexibility to spend extra time on material with which students are struggling. To compound the matter, students are enrolled based on their age rather than their ability. An out-of-school child who has never attended school, upon enrolment, would be placed in the grade of children of his or her own age, rather than in the grade suited to his or her academic ability. While the act states that it is the responsibility of the schools to provide “additional training” to out-of-school children enrolling for the first time in school, schools in rural areas rarely have the resources to provide said training. It seems as though the RTE, rather than helping students, is ensuring that students who struggle or fall behind in school will continue to struggle and never catch up.

Whereas the RTE might have been intended to improve education in India, it has serious distributional consequences for the most disadvantaged children. It is threatening the existence of NGO interventions, such as the education programs run by Seva Mandir, which have acted more or less as a security net for rural and disadvantaged children. Moreover, the RTE will not remedy the stereotypes and cultural and linguistic barriers that are hindering rural and tribal children’s academic performance in the first place. In reality, it fails to address the issue of the quality of education at all. However, while the RTE is not a comprehensive piece of legislation, it is at the very least a step—albeit misplaced—toward improving education in India.

Namaste!

Greetings again, from the Himalayas in India. I am approximately 2/3 through my internship and everything is going very well. I am enjoying the work, the staff, the location, the food, everything about this entire experience! I am so pleased that I have decided to participate in the internship as it really provides a field-work perspective to my program, International Development and Globalization.

The staff at Aarohi, the organization I am volunteering for, have nicknamed me Chai girl. Most of the staff claim that I am actually an Indian, or have an Indian soul. I have adjusted well to life here, I love the food, accept all offers of tea (which can be about 5 a day), love the music and the entire atmosphere in the mountains. I have also started cooking Indian food and I have to say, I am getting pretty good! At home, I would always go out for Indian food, because I thought cooking it was to hard, or complex. But, here my experimentation is starting to pay off!

Along with adjusting well to life here, I am also enjoying the work I am doing. At the beginning my internship, I have expressed interest in observing and assisting with the organization’s medical camps. I have this interest because I hope to study in Nursing post-graduation at OttawaU. Luckily, I have had the amazing opportunity to sit with doctors all of specialties while they treat patients, assisted with the school children’s health check-ups, observe pre-natal examinations, and most of all, observe a surgery. During a medical camp in October, I had the opportunity to watch a hysterectomy, the removal of the uterus. As I was watching the surgery, I was amazed that I found myself, firstly, in India, up in the mountains and lastly, in an operating room watching a surgeon perform the surgery. These kind of experiences do not come by very often. I also thought that the possibility of observing a surgery in Canada for someone like me, meaning completely untrained, is very slim. Therefore, I was  very thrilled by this rare and unique opportunity that presented itself during my internship.

Otherwise, most of my day to day activities evolve around facilitating the English program at the organization’s school. The simple quote of “give a man a fish, and feed him for a day; teach a man, and feed him for lifetime” that provides a slight undertone to development work, has manifested itself in my work here. I was assigned the task to write a volunteer guide, because my supervisor felt that hosting volunteers can be more beneficial if the volunteers share their knowledge and skills with the staff at the organization. Volunteer placements are short-term, and therefore if they do not share their knowledge and skills, after the time of their placement, the benefits that they bring will also leave with them. Another instance of this concept, manifesting itself during my internship was through the Education Steering Committee meeting in October.

At the meeting, the chair suggested to create a group that would utilize English-speaking staff members to teach English to the teachers at the school who teach the language. For example, as a volunteer, it is more beneficial and sustainable, to teach the teachers how to teach English as oppose to directly teaching the students. After this suggestion at the committee meeting, I quickly jumped to the initiative and began planning this group. I just recently made a presentation to the office staff, and we are set to begin the classes next week! It was interesting to see that simple quotation manifest itself into a real-life situation in the field of development. And, as simple as the quotation may be, it does make sense. We are abroad and interning to learn from each other, to start with what they have and to build with them; this is a more sustainable approach to development as it is long-lasting. With this approach, the knowledge and skills that volunteers can offer to development organizations will be carried on into the future, beyond our departure.