Urban Slum and NGO Visit

Today we went to an urban slum in Delhi. While there, we were given information and an academic tour by an NGO (Save the Children/HOPE Worldwide India Chapter). This is a very complicated topic, and we are going to spend some time discussing it in class.

So, here you are going to get some raw information. I am only going to give some observations and a few interpretations. I am going to leave the evaluations to you.

The far left picture is of a "clean" street. A lot of the streets had cement or cobblestones that were falling apart; drainage/sewers that were exposed and in danger of overflowing (and keep in mind we are in the dry season) or even simply dirty water running in the street; and there was garbage, poo (from cows, pigs, dogs, and humans), and dead mice found all over the streets. I couldn't snap a picture of  a dirty/more common streets because we were moving quickly and I had to watch where I was walking ... but I think you can imagine. Here you can gather the scale of things: tall buildings, narrow streets. There were also a mix of smells: dirty pondish water, manure, street food (some yummy and some just oily).

The middle picture is of a little doctor stall. There are stalls everywhere, for all types of things. I obviously found this one most interesting because we were there as academics for a public health research. But there were also shops and most importantly to our visit, there were anganwadies - more on that below.

The far right picture is of a typical power pole in the slum. This slum is not what we as Americans typically think of as a "slum." There is power for AC and the inhabitants pay rent (about Rs1000 a month for one room without a bathroom). However, as you'd assume, the bathroom facilities are limited - many families share a common bathroom - and there is no running water in each "apartment" but there is a common tap.

Above is a picture of a first grade class. The schools in the slum are integrated into the "neighborhood." This is a pic of a government school (what we'd call public) but there are also public schools (what we'd call private) which has tuition at about Rs200 / month; both are within the boundaries of the slum.

Now, the main topic we were looking at today was the anganwadies - pronounced by the Indians as "ang-an-vady". In a nutshell, an anganwadi is a small room (about 70sqyds) that is run by the government. In India, every 1000 people is "supplied" with an anganwadi. At the core, the system was established as a nutrition program. Children ages 0-5yrs can come to the anganwadi and receive a hot lunch. There is supposed to be a woman there to cook the meals everyday from food shipments which are supposed to arrive. In addition to the food, the anganwadi is supplied with a chalkboard and some educational posters, as it is also supposed to be used as a type of preschool. However, as you may have guessed when I said that it was run by the government, the system has major flaws. The women employed for the anganwadi are not properly trained educators, they may not show up to the anganwadi as there is little to no accountability, the food may not arrive, ect, ect, ect, ect, ect.

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So, what is to be done about it and why was I looking at this system today?

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Well, Save the Children/HOPE Worldwide India Chapter is working on increasing education rates (which is the key to advancing out of the slums) by improving the entry rate of primary schools. They accomplish this through good pre-educational programs.

This gets super complicated, but in a nutshell, they train new and reliable workers for the anganwadies to teach the children basic educational skills along with health skills. The NGO (supposedly) keeps the anganwadies accountable, which then increases their use by the communities because families grow to trust them and their work.

With basic pre-school education, children are more likely able to be admitted to schools. The NGO also works with the government/local school authorities to solve issues like a lack of birth certificates (which is required for school entry) - a common problem as home birth is very typical and "about a fortnight before the monsoon 5 years ago" is not a government recognized birthday.

Is this making any sense? This is a very complicated topic and a little too much information to try to cover in a post like this. If you have any questions about the information I learned today, just post a comment and I'll get back to you.

Below is a video of the "bribe" anganwadi. The NGO headquarters is run out of this building, and as my host father said, "This looks like a 5 star NGO. I've never seen anything like it!"

This building is used to convince families of the good training that the organization does for its teachers, and I think it is also used for purposes like today, to make researchers, volunteers or donors feel a little better about the quality of the living situation.

These children were adorable. The video is a clip of a nursery rhyme that they learned to help teach them language, and personal skills. The rhyme is about a bird and a monkey; it is raining outside and the bird has a home and the monkey is peeping in looking at the bird. The bird invites the monkey in to protect himself from the rain.

Eye-spy 5 star NGO/anganwadi: heaters, murals, plasma TV, table, decorations, toys.