Project Jeevan

From June 16^th - 19^th , 2010 Chelsea, Suneil and I went with Miss Anita Gupta and Mr. Anant Ram to Vrindavan to begin some of the ground work for Project Jeevan, which will begin on July 4^th. This new endeavor started by Maitri will work to provide food for elderly widows living in difficult circumstances.

Vrindavan is located in Northern India in the state of Uttar Pradesh. It is also situated near the Yamuna River, which is one of the tributary rivers of the Ganges. Vrindavan is significant for Hindus because it was the site where the Lord Krishna spent his childhood. In this area, there are hundreds of temples dedicated to the worship of Krishna and Radha (the famous lover and companion of Krishna.) The religious value of Vrindavan attracts devotees and tourists from all over, as well as widows seeking refuge after being abandoned by family and community.

Vrindavan is sometimes referred to as the “City of Widows” because of the large population of women who migrate there after losing their husbands for various reasons. In India, there is a stigma associated with widows. They are often viewed as unlucky in society and are connected to their husband's death. Many of the widows living in Vrindavan originally come from West Bengal, where there are less opportunities for widows to earn money. Once in Vrindavan, widows are able to make a small amount of money by singing religious songs in temples, or by begging. Although the living situation for these widows is an improvement from their lives in West Bengal, they still live in difficult surroundings. Illness, poverty and hunger are common trials for these women, along with being removed from society.

Project Jeevan (meaning “life” in Hindi) was first inspired by a visit to Vrindavan by General Bhopinder Singh and his wife Mrs. Winnie Singh in 2009. General and Mrs. Singh were extremely touched by the living situations of the widows in Vrindavan and believed it would be a perfect environment to initiate a new project for Maitri. Project Jeevan will work to provide essential needs to these widows. Maitri has identified 300 widows who live in Meera Sehbhagani Mahila Ashram. Most of the widows are very impoverished and require a tremendous amount of nourishment. These women will receive identification cards to show their participation in the project. With these identification cards, the widows will receive a mid-day meal consisting of a seasonal vegetable curry, daal (lentils) and rice. This meal will be provided seven days a week. By December 2010, the Project hopes to increase the amount of widows from 500-700, in hopes of one day reaching the over five thousand widows in Vrindavan. This project will receive food from Akshaya Patra, which is an non-governmental organization providing food for millions of school children across India. Food will be delivered by Akshay Patra directly to the ashram.

Working in Vrindavan allowed us to see the struggle and poor living conditions of some of the widows in India. It was very saddening to know that many of these women have families who had completely cut ties with them. Some of the widows we met even had wealthy children living around the world who wanted nothing to do with their mothers. All of these women have to depend on themselves for survival. This situation has made them entirely focused on earning and saving money to gain some sort of stability. Women are even willing to starve themselves if it means they can save money. Project Jeevan will ease the burden for such widows who will not have to worry about using all of their expenses on food.

Trip to the Taj Mahal

The office provided a car to take us to Vrindavan and arranged for all the interns to take the car to Agra before beginning our work in Vrindavan. Agra and Vrindavan are both in the state of Uttar Pradesh and are about two hours apart from each other. Our pit-stop in Agra allowed us to see India's contribution to the wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal. We arrived at the Taj Mahal in the afternoon and were greeted by hundreds of vendors preparing to make a deal with some unsuspecting tourists, camels waiting to carry loads of passengers from the parking lot to the entry gate, and the biggest welcome of all was, of course, the blazing sun.

The Taj Mahal was constructed in the mid-1600's by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as a tribute to his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal after her passing away during childbirth. The Taj Mahal serves as the tomb for the Emperor and his wife. The entire tomb is made of white marble with exterior decorations of paint, stone inlays, and carvings. The Taj Mahal attracts from 2 to 4 million visitors annually, with more than 200,000 from overseas.

Our visit to the Taj Mahal was definitely worthwhile. Even with the crowds of people taking millions of photographs and the feeling of hot stone burning your feet, it is surreal being there. It is almost as if that area is set apart from the rest of the India, it is special. We all were glad that we could get a chance to see this monument.

-Jeevan

Project Awaaz

On June 8, 2010 all four of us went with Mr. Resham Pathak to central Delhi in order to see the field-work for Project Awaaz, which is Maitri's project that helps address many of the issues faced by Rickshaw pullers a daily basis. India has millions of Rickshaw pullers, who are generally men move to a city in search of opportunity and ultimately are left with few employment opportunities and thus end up renting a rickshaw from someone who contracts them and provides transportation services for people within the city in exchange for a small amount of money.

The Rickshaw pullers face a plethora of issues including lack of hygienic conditions, nutrition, no property or shelter, risk of tuberculosis (because of the hard manual labor in highly polluted areas), risk of HIV/AIDS (because of the stressful living conditions and access to prostitution), and other difficulties. The problem is further exemplified because this is a continuous cycle since the Rickshaw puller does not make enough money for basic needs and often accumulates debt, which can be a tremendous burden-- especially if the result of losing or breaking a rickshaw he rented. The manual labor is extremely strenuous not only because of the pollution and breathing difficulties from the labor, but also from the pain accrued after years of pulling a bike with "heavy cargo" for 8-10 hours a day for years on end.

We first went to Paharganj and met some rickshaw drivers. The first person we met was Nandkishore, a rickshaw puller who was HIV positive. Maitri has encouraged him to seek treatment and go to the hospital once a month for check ups. He told us that the medicine made him feel better but he was starting to develop severe joint pains and feared being constrained to home in the future. We visited other sites and met with other rickshaw pullers and were all emotionally moved each site we went to. Seeing the living conditions and the difficult life that many rickshaw pullers live was powerful and we immediately understood the need of more services and rights for the workers.

The field work is only one part of Maitri's involvement in Project Awaaz. Maitri holds health camps throughout the year for rickshaw pullers and teaches them about the importance of maximizing health conditions and encourages them to refrain from engaging in risky behavior such as drugs, alcohol, or commercial sex.

We met with General Singh today who gave us further background about the project initiatives. "Awaaz" is a hindi word that means "voice of the common man." One of the main initiatives is to give Rickshaw pullers identification cards so that they can have access to government rights that require a permanent address (health-care, food rationing, voting, etc). Rickshaw drivers currently do not have identification and cannot vote; they are faceless and voiceless. Maitri is making an initiative to help rickshaw pullers live a better life but it is constrained by financial resources. Maitri hopes to increase the magnitude and reach of its program in the future.

We also had the opportunity to see a little more of Delhi; we usually spend time in South Delhi (where we live, work, hang out, etc) but we grabbed a quick bite in West Delhi and noticed many things on the drive back to the office. The locations we visited were all near Canot Place, which we noticed was under intense construction, probably in preparation for the upcoming Commonwealth games.

It was great to see the field work yesterday and have clear images and a strong sense of purpose about what this project is about. Working in the office has been productive and insightful so far, but seeing everything firsthand was of great benefit.


-- Suneil

Welcome to the Maitri India Intern Blog!

Maitri receives 2-3 interns from the University of Utah each semester. This blog includes their writings about experiences regarding their work at Maitri and India in general.

In the summer of 2010, 3 students came from the University of Utah: Suneil Bhambri and Jeevan Moses are interning for the summer and Isha Gupta is volunteering for 1 month. Chelsea Harris, from Brown University, is interning for the summer as well.

This is an exciting time to be in India and especially with Maitri who is pursuing several endeavors and has plenty of great opportunities for the interns to experience the work Maitri is involved in.