India Case Study

Namaste,

I am back from my case study in rural India! It was a really great experience with my only complaint being that it was too short! Our group consisted of 7 students, a member of the Environmental Support Group (ESG) staff named Divya and one of our professors named Farrah. We left early Sunday morning in a 15 passenger van for B.R. Hills which is a rural area about 7 hours southwest of Bangalore. The van ride was crazy! As soon as we got out of the city the roads became incredibly bumpy and curvy (luckily I took some Dramamine before hand!). Our van driver was very experienced and drove really fast so that when we hit the bumps we would fly out of our seats! The scenery was beautiful, filled with lots of open land for farming and forests.

Finally we made it to a Primary Health Center (PHC) somewhere in B.R. Hills. The PHCs are Indians main way of providing health care. They are funded by the government and are usually free of charge (or a small fee) for the people who use them. The problem is that in rural areas the PHC is supposed to serve more than 100,000 people spanning over 400 kilometers of hilly and rough terrain. The PHCs also have limited resources in terms of doctors, nurses, medicine, beds and technology. This specific PHC we visited was relatively well equipped thanks to a doctor named Dr. Prashant whom we were able to meet. He has worked hard to make the facility nice and more accessible. He was also the first to start any kind of mental health clinic in the region. Dr. Prashant explained that in a region that contained 100,000 people there were no psychiatrists. Instead, people who had mental health issues would see a local healer and sometimes they would be beaten to try to get evil spirits out of them. Dr. Prashant set up a mental health clinic at the PHC and has worked hard to create awareness that mental health issues can have biological causes and can be treated with drugs. He also worked with local healers to form a partnership where the healers can refer patients to the clinic. It was quite an inspiring story and gave me hope that one person can make a difference!

After visiting the PHC we went a bit further to Vivekanada Girijana Kalyana Kendra (VGKK) which is a school, hospital and vocational training center for people of the Soliga tribe living in B.R. Hills. A doctor named Dr. Sudarshan started VGKK in 1979 inspired by the Patron Saint Vivekanada. At first, he came in just to provide so called "Western" medical care but soon realized this was not enough and would not help the tribe become self sufficient and slowly developed his idea into what VGKK is today. The main focus of VGKK is the school which 500 tribal children ages 5-16 attend and 200 children live at. We stayed in guest huts on the campus. The campus is very serene and beautiful, surrounding by large hills and forest.

We felt incredible welcome at VGKK and loved meeting all the children. On Monday morning we woke up at 5:45 a.m. and went on a hike with Dr. Prashant to bird watch. It was a bit chilly but nice to finally get in some exercise! We were able to watch the sun rise over the forest which reminding me of Colorado a little bit! We then went to breakfast. We ate all our meals with the children in a large "dining hall." The dining area is a large room with girls on one side and boys on the other. Everyone sits on straw mats facing each other and everyone brings their own plate. After the children sing and pray some boys bring around large buckets full of rice and scoop the rice on to your plate. It is cray how much rice they eat! Tiny little girls with skinny little arms and legs will eat mountains of rice! Breakfast was spicy rice with peas in it. Lunch was quite different. We ate something called Raggi balls which are made of a millet (grain) that is pulverized and mixed with water to make a dough ball. You are given a large ball and some sauce called Samba. You then tear of pieces from the big ball and make bite sized balls. You dip these smaller balls into the Samba and then swallow them whole! The thinking behind this is first that Raggi is not tasty at all, second is that if you swallow it whole you can eat more and therefore get more nutrition (raggi is full of good things for your body!). I found it the very unsatisfying and was left hungry! Dinner consisted of white rice and some kind of sauce and maybe a roti (tortilla).

On Monday, we had a tour of the place and were able to see the hospital and training centers as well as a food processing plant, small farm and classrooms. The best part was interacting with the kids. They were so excited to see us and talk with us. Although they spoke limited English and we spoke almost no Kanada (the local language) we were still able to point and communicate names, ages and other basic information. On Tuesday night we had a cultural performance in the main courtyard with a bonfire. The kids showed us traditional dances and songs. Then we were asked to perform! The seven of us sang the Star Spangled Banner and "Ain't no Mountain High Enough." It was the best night of the trip! I made friends with some 11 year old boys who showed me how to dance. I taught them the Macerena! This one boy told me that I was "beautiful like a tiger!" which was really cute and I took some pictures with him!

On Tuesday we drove to Mysore (about 3 hours from Bangalore) and visited an ASHA training center and mental health facility. An ASHA is a woman who is trained as a social activist for a village. Asha means hope and is a new government program to help improve the health of rural villages. Each ASHA covers an area of 1000 people and helps the community by teaching them about personal hygiene, sanitation, traditional medicine, immunization and encourages them to use government institutions such as hospitals if they are sick. We were able to meet some women who were being trained as ASHAs. There training is done through songs and role plays. They sang us the theme song for the National Rural Health Mission and showed us a role play (with song) about convincing a mother to immunize her baby. It was all in Kanada but we had a translator who explained everything to us afterwards. It was really interesting and great to see. After, we went to a mental health institution called Manasa. It was a bit disturbing because the man who showed us was not very compassionate and started pointing at people and calling out their diagnosis. It was quite different from anything I have seen in the U.S. and an eye opening experience.

That night we stayed at a small hotel and left early the next morning for Bangalore. Overall it was a interesting experience and I definitely learned a lot. It was nice to get out of the classroom and see what we have been learning about.

Now, we leave for Kerala this Sunday (Feb. 22) which is a different part of India about 11 hours from Bangalore on the western coast. From Kerala we leave for our vacation. I am planning on staying in Kerela with 6 other girls for vacation and going on a backwater house boat tour, going to the beach and getting a traditional ayurvedic massage! Hopefully I will have Internet access throughout my time so I will be able to stay in touch.

Well, this is an incredibly long post. I hope you enjoyed it. I feel I have so much more to tell! Please e-mail me with any questions or leave a comment if you have a g mail account. I am always interested in what everyone else is doing too!

Love,
Barbara