From the Beat

Day 3: Mapping stereotypes of the rural and urban poor

2008-11-07T00:22:00Z

They say over 500 people come in to Mumbai every day and don't go back. Not all find jobs. Given Mumbai's exorbitant rental structures, where do they end up? Obviously the pavements, streets and chawls. The city is magnanimous, in that it just swells and absorbs this human mass. It may creak and protest but it doesn't collapse. At least not yet.

Over the last three days I was drawn into the lives of a number of chawl inmates in Mumbai's urban slums (in the vicinity of the industrial areas) and welcomed into the homes of some of the villages in Chandrapur district, located on the eastern edge of Maharashtra in Nagpur division.

A humbling experience, I also realized that so many notions that we have of the poor in both urban and rural settings don't hold true in the present day context. Women for example are far more abused in the city than they are in the village. A girl child is much more vulnerable in the city again. A father raping his own daughter is not uncommon in an urban slum but not so in the rural household. The culprit in the city may get away with the most heinous crime but in the village, the panchayat will through its own legal framework ensure that justice is meted out. This and more in the paras below:

Sanitation: Open drains, still water, mosquitoes and stench of stale fish greet you in the urban slum where as the villages are swept clean. Badly affected by Chickenguniya they responded immediately to the local MLA and health department's interventions and trained themselves on cleanliness and hygiene, going on to win the Nirmal Gram Puraskar (clean village award). 90% households have their own toilets. Also where there is complete apathy to surroundings in the city, the villagers take immense pride in their village, home, neighbourhood and health.

Health: Infant and maternal mortality rates are down in the villages and indicators of nutrition, anemia and reproductive health better. Urban slums on the other hand are battling with a high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STI) and infections, HIV and regular outbreaks of cholera, malaria and other communicable diseases.

Living abodes: Innovative space management is at its best in Mumbai's chawls. We navigated a delicately perched steep iron staircase to meet a 15-year old girl in her house. She is one of 17 family members. It's a one-room tenement, not more than 45X45 feet. I tried to visualize the kind of acrobatics that the grand parents, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces and infants would have to do to sleep there at night, but drew a blank. She smilingly insisted that they 'somehow manage'. Rural homes in contrast are large and spacious. Made of mud and brick, they are much cooler and environment friendly. The air is clean and devoid of smells. The houses of the scheduled caste community, built in a cluster in a corner of the village did not have electricity, but the rest of the village was all lit up.

Status of women: Domestic abuse behind closed doors is rampant in the urban slum where although people are packed together like a tin of sardines, each family unit tries to stay independent of the other. Wife beating is common. Young girls are usually locked by parents when they go out to work because incidence of sexual abuse by neighbours, uncles, brothers and sometimes drunken fathers is very common. There is a veil of silence which pushes most of the 'aberrations' under the carpet. Girls in the rural pocket on the contrary are more sexually active. Pre marital sex and teen pregnancies are quite the norm. While the girl in the urban setting will go in for an MTP in such a situation, the girl in the village is likely to have the baby and in some cases with the panchayat's intervention marry the boy. With various NGO and government interventions women are getting empowered and the men seem not to resist that. They are infact happy to see them take the lead.

Redressal mechanisms: In the city, the only redressal system is neighbours getting together and thrashing the culprit or the complainant going to the cop station which means humiliation and losing daily wages, a cost that is higher than seeking long drawn out justice and jeopardizing social prestige. The village panchayat may have its biases but it also has its own strict code that draw lines, sets limits and punishes offenders.

Suicides: While the Vidharbha belt has seen farmers' suicides in the last decade, this pocket is relatively free. Stray cases were reported last year where both husband and wife committed suicide, unable to deal with the fall out of a bad soya crop. Families in the urban slums are far more spirited. They may be hopelessly in debt but they will keep trying to innovate with livelihood options to improve their situation.

The one similarity that existed in both settings was assigning pride of place to two things - television/ radio/ stereo (ancient models) and a puja corner with idols and pictures of gods and goddesses, incense sticks and a tulsi plant. Bollywood and religion remain their two strongest influencers and hope givers. If only we could create more employment opportunities in the villages, the exodus to the towns would be stemmed. There might even be a reverse trend - of people from the cities trooping to the rural hinterland. I for one might just do that.

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Day 2: Transformative power of SHGs

2008-11-05T09:35:00Z

When it comes to money and small savings, I have a distinct memory that goes back to childhood. A coarse terracotta piggy bank costing Rs5 would be bought every other month. Much thought would be given to assign it a safe place. Usually perched atop a pelmet, a spot perceived to be the safest by virtue of its relative inaccessibility, meant that the treasure trove was intact and not busted before time by an impatient younger brother.

Every evening it would ceremoniously be brought down to slide in coins saved and collected during the day. Stirred and shaken with joy and hope, the sound of coins was music to the ears. And the day it would be full, would be a day of such anticipation and excitement. Crashing it down with full force and seeing all the coins gleefully scatter across the room made one feel like a queen who had had been bestowed with the world’s largest inheritance. Stacking up the 5paise, 10paise, 25paise, 50paise and Rs1 coins and then counting them was such an engrossing activity.

I would imagine that this same feeling would be experienced by women who put aside their hard earned rupees in Self Help Groups (SHGs) with the hope of meeting exigencies and in some miraculous way, turning around their destinies. While for me it was more of a game, for them it is a lifeline offering hope, opportunity and relief.

Lakshmi Bachat Ghar is a Self Help Group that has 20 women in Marol's K East ward – one of the 'healthier' urban slums in Mumbai. 42- year old Davishilli leads the initiative with 20 members who contribute Rs50 a month. An interest of 2% is charged for every amount that is loaned to a member. It has been operational for 17 months and has earned the group Rs3000 by way of interest. The amount is safe with Canara Bank. The plan is to liquidate it after five years and distribute the kitty amongst the members.

For most of these women who work as domestic help or daily wage construction labour, earmarking this Rs50 a month is no mean task. It cuts into their budget and sometimes makes them default. But the group solidarity is so strong that the other members pitch in – pooling in to make up her contribution or giving her a couple of weeks to pay up. In fact every option is exercised in an attempt to keep her within the group. For they know just how much the consolidated cash disbursal will mean to them at the end of the 5-year period. Also the safety net that the bachat ghar has provided has bailed out many of them in emergencies like paying for children’s school books and uniforms; renewing a son’s autorickshaw licence; paying for illness related expenses and giving gifts to a daughter’s in-laws on a festival.

At an interpersonal level, the group meetings which are held on the 7th of every month are occasions when the women get a chance to participate, share, talk, express opinions and offer advice – things that do wonders to their self esteem and confidence. Davishalli is particularly excited about Lijjat Papad approaching them for a small but regular monthly order. The details have to be worked out but this would be the first employment opportunity for her SHG.

Now moving from the urban slum in Mumbai to a rural pocket in Maharashtra one interacted with members of yet another vibrant SHG. In the Unicef supported Women Empowerment Programme (CCA) that was implemented in 2003 in the state of Maharashtra, a number of SHGs were set up, some defunct ones activated and many like the one we went to strengthened.

Savitri Bhai Phule is the name given to one of the 1300 SHGs that operate in Chandrapur district, a rural block in Maharashtra. Located in Dhorpa village of Naghbid Block, the name was chosen carefully. It belonged to a woman from Satara who happened to be India's first woman teacher in the 19th century. The village has 317 households. Out of a total popularion of 587 women 195 are already SHG members. The objective is to have all women be a part of an SHG. Members contribute Rs20 to Rs50 a month and are charged 3% interest for every loan that they take.

An interesting trend is the way in which the adolescent girls have followed the older women. A total of 13 adolescent girl groups (SHGs) comprising 195 members have managed a monthly saving of Rs5850 which has added up to the current levels of Rs3,80,250, an amount they have never seen in their life. Out of this, nine SHG groups have been linked with a bank and Rs1,30,000 so far advanced as loans to run enterprises like beauty parlours and stitching and embroidery centres.

While the women in the rural pockets found cooperative banks willing to service their small, fragmented and by and large non profitable accounts, the women in the urban slums have struggled to get State Bank of India (SBI) or the ICICI interested. Not only are the loans that they advance to them at high rates of interest but also the paper work, attitude and processes are detrimental to their opening an account.

The spirit of collectivism is the real hero in this story. These women have resolved to push up their savings - bank or no bank, and collaborate with their local NGOs to acquire entrepreneurial skills and financial acumen so that they can stand on their feet and have a future that is different from that of their mothers. They don't want to spend their lives drawing water from the wells and working in the fields and see their lives go by. SHGs provide that little window of opportunity and they are not going to let that go.

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Day 1: Community development courtesy NGOs and CBOs

2008-11-04T04:21:00Z

Can you walk the streets of Kamathipura (India's best known red light area in Mumbai where over 40% commercial sex workers are HIV positive) and be gently led into the tiny cubicles that suffice as living quarters, cooking areas and 'business centres' without the NGO that works in that area? Can you walk on Marine Drive with MSMs (Men having Sex with Men) and hear about how they transact business in what is the most touristy spot of the city without the volunteers of Humsafar? And can you once again go back to Mumbai's urban slums, entering homes of Hindu and Muslim families, seeing how they live and love in what is one of the toughest survival battles any of us is likely to ever face?

What NGOs and more significantly, CBOs (Community Based Organizations) do is to bring funding organizations, donors and governments right into the centre of the community. On their own, how much ever muscle and money they may have, they can never get the kind of access and trust of the people who live on the periphery, who are marginalized and who are often bitter with the system.

The CBO or NGO (usually multiple of them) who work in the area facilitate the process of interaction and understanding before real issues can be taken up and solutions to their problems found.

For every NGO that is a fraud or a racketeer there are at least a dozen that are doing good work especially at the grassroots level. When a funding organization like Unicef, WHO, UNFPA or USAID takes up a project they identify mahila mandals, youth networks and other small civil society organizations that have been working with the locals of the area. By building their capacities they strengthen existing projects and introduce new ones. Once these projects are running and the community has embraced it they are either integrated with government programmes like the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) or Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) or better still, they are taken up by the community itself who has been sensitized, trained and motivated to take ownership and responsibility to make it work.

Often enough what is lacking is awareness – both at the community and at the official levels. Women in Satara got together to tackle alcoholism once they got the confidence through a series of workshops on how they needn't be silent spectators to their destinies. The fiery lot of women met with a lot of resistance. In one of the protest marches, one of them lost her 13-year old son who was crushed in a lathi charge and stampede but she continued with the fight which culminated in the shutting down of at least three local alcohol breweries.

In a neighbouring village when women were told about the cost of having a makeshift toilet installed was only Rs1,000 and that the NGO could meet 50% of the cost, in record time they arranged for the remainder money. The inconvenience of arranging for money to have their own private space was nothing as compared to the daily embarrassment of having to go to the fields, looking for secluded corners or waiting till dawn or dusk. And to think they could have done it much earlier, had they only known!

Tribal development departments have crores of budgets which either do not get used or get hastily exhausted in quick programming. Just by partnering with the right networks can make a whole lot of difference to the lives of people, who look like you and me and yet whose lives are so different because they can't access basic services that we take so much for granted.

One of the solutions could be to have localized knowledge societies or village information societies where sustainable programmes are created, initiatives are communitized and a process set in place for monitoring, expansion and systematic upscaling. My next set of posts will give more details.

Note: The Kamathipura experience was thanks to a WHO funded World AIDS Day field trip in December 2006 while the urban (Mumbai) slum and rural slum (Nagpur) field trip is what I am currently part of - a two-day initiative of Unicef.

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Day 1: Delhi to Mumbai, Air India style

2008-11-04T04:20:00Z

If chronological listing of events is the format for 'From the Beat', my first post will have to be dedicated to Air India. Leaving home at 4.30am to board IC 657 to Mumbai, I thought there was enough time for the 6.00am flight. Seeing out-of-shape queues and hysterical crowds around all five AI counters didn't need too much piecing together to comprehend what was going on.

After being shunted from one line to the next, when the last and final boarding call had been announced I found myself finally at one of the counters. The person in-charge, looking very busy and important was reasoning with someone on a walkie talkie (must be a babu or a mantri), telling him that the flight was fully booked and there was no way he could either hold it up or accommodate him.

And then, seeing me, a suitable bakra who didn't look the trouble maker kind, he probably got a bright idea. Curtly, as if it was all my fault, he says, "the plane is full madam, you will have to take the 8.00 am flight." While I gasped and gaped, he said with still more certainty, "Yes ma'am, there is no other way." End of story.

I could hear the PA system now announcing my name. My anger which takes a rather long while in materializing was now in full form. With the steeliest voice I held my ground and told him that I WAS on that flight and there were no two ways about me not being on it. I refrained from saying, "I am from the media and tomorrow morning's headlines will expose India's national air carrier" (obviously I have no such clout) but somehow the glare and the cold voice worked and I was hustled to a waiting plane.

There were many on that flight who were asked to take later flights. A business class passenger who was holding a confirmed ticket didn't have his name showing up in the computerized list. Don't know if he made it because when I left he was still struggling trying to get himself heard! Inspite of having such a large retinue of staff, mostly middle aged, what they were contributing most effectively to was harried nerves, chaos and disorder. The attitude of those on the counters was a far cry from any of the tenets of service culture.

The evening flight to Nagpur was again Air India but this time no such disaster was in store. Looking at the air hostesses, I could not but help notice that they were under such pressure to look young and pretty. There have been directives asking them to lose weight or they would be 'retired'. While I didn't mind their being 50-plus and overweight, I could see some young kids sniggering. In fact, they were more hospitable and even motherly as they went an extra yard to make you comfortable.

Though it wouldn't hurt to drastically tone down the rouge, avoid colouring the hair such a stark blonde and have saree blouses that don't look at least two sizes large.

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Walking a mile in every man's shoes: Part 4

2008-10-23T12:13:00Z

Walking a mile in the shoes of a Hindu :

Let me tell you something straight: I am not a Hindu because there is no religion like Hinduism.

What I am trying to protect is a civilization, a cultural heritage that believes every man has the right to worship whichever god in whatever way s/he likes. I am protecting an idea that there is one divinity but there are infinite ways of realizing it. That God is meant to set you free, not bind you to one idea, one god, and one book.

We believe that there can be no rigidity of form or doctrine in matters of faith. But we do not sit in judgement of how others pray. We do not try to change what they believe in. Why are they here trying to change us?

Missionaries come from foreign countries and go to the most backward regions to ‘serve the poor.’ That is very good – because I admit, we have been very unfair to a section of our society for far too long – but why do they need to convert? Can they not serve in the name of Jesus without coaxing, cajoling and cheating innocent villagers into believing that their god is Supreme?

Their Pope came to this country in 1999 and declared – In the first century it was Europe. In the second, it was America. In the third it will be Asia – so that is the design, is it? To make India a Christian nation? Is that why the evangelicals pump in thousands of crores into the country? To help their men on the ground ‘buy’ more souls for Jesus Christ?

What a mockery of a profound idea that Jesus, the Son of God, had described as ‘the kingdom of god’. Do they think that Christ wants these souls who do not understand him? Souls who do not even understand the idea of the holy trinity in the first place?

But that is all for the Christians to sort out.

As far as conquering Asia is concerned – they can forget about India. We do not go out to convert anyone to our way of thinking and we will not let others convert us to theirs.

Our age of vulnerability is over. We don’t need their money. We don’t need their service. We can look after our own very well. Thank you very much.

Still, what has happened in Orissa is a tragedy. We were fighting for the principle of tolerance, but in the battle to protect that idea, I think we sacrificed the principle itself. We were fighting an alien idea, to protect Indians. Somehow, we killed Indians in trying to do that. Still the point we want to communicate is that long before Jesus walked the earth, this civilization had produced some of the deepest thinkers and philosophers of history who have left behind thought provoking ideas that cannot be destroyed.

In this land ideas will always live.

Hindus will live. Muslims will live. Parsis will live. Sufis will live. Jains will live. Buddhists will live. Yes, Christians will also live.

Yes, the Pope can forget about harvesting the soul of India for in this civilization, diversity will live.

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Walking a mile in every man's shoes: Part 3:

2008-10-23T11:34:00Z

Walking a mile in the shoes of a Christian missionary:

Have you ever heard the Gregorian Chants? It is music that stirs your soul and connects you to ancient churches with stained glass windows…enduring symbols of a profound idea that has given millions of people hope.

Hope that there will be a tomorrow. That no matter how bad things are today, there will be a day of reckoning when all tears will be wiped.

As people who believe in this simple message of hope, it is our duty to pass this message, this beacon of hope to the darkest corners of humanity. Assure them that there is someone watching. That someone knows how they have suffered, for Jesus himself has suffered.

It is natural for us to work among the poorest and most downtrodden, because they need to hear this message before anyone else. Jesus said that every time we ignore a man in need, we are ignoring Jesus himself. We are commanded to love our neighbour as we love ourselves.

So we build homes, schools, and hospitals for those who have nothing. We look after them when they are sick. We build their homes for them. We build schools for those who have no one to teach them. We have left our lives, our families, and our loved ones to live among the people we serve, as one of them.

Of course they think of us as their friends. We are their friends.

And when we tell them about Our Merciful Lord, Jesus Christ and his love, they are attracted to the faith. If they want to become Christians, we welcome them. We want them to know the Kingdom of God. So what is wrong in this? What is wrong in serving those who have nothing? I don’t see anyone else stepping in to do the work that we are doing for them.

Some, I admit, in their misplaced understanding of the scriptures, have used inducements to bring people into the faith. Faith cannot be bought. But their intentions were good.

And what sense does it make for Hindus, who call themselves tolerant, to go on such a rampage? They destroyed our churches and homes. They have killed innocent people. Only because they believe we are using inducements to people to convert?

Well, so what if we did? At least we have not hurt anybody. We have not killed anybody. And frankly, if we could give them Rs15, 000 before what makes those fanatics think we cannot give the Rs 3 lakhs now? **

We will resettle every Christian they have uprooted. We will rebuild every home, every church.

I don’t want to have anything to do with the Hindus who did this. For me, I forgive them. After all, our father has said: there is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.

** This is a direct quote, of Dr. Swarupananda Patra, who is running a relief camp for Pano Christians in Bubaneshwar **

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Walking a mile in every man's shoes: Part 2:

2008-10-22T13:05:00Z

The best way to understand a man is to walk a mile in his shoes. Over the next few blogs, I will try to do just that and explore the world from the eyes of a Kandha, a Pano, a Hindu activist, a Christian missionary, and various political parties in an effort to show how every group has a different take on this conflict.

Walking a mile in Pano Shoes:

We understand that only the fittest will survive. Our bloody history has ensured we understand this simple reality of life.

We come from Gajapati, south of this area of Kandhamal. Two hundred years ago, our King in Gajapati ordered our execution: he told his people to kill every Pano they saw. So many of my people died in that bloodbath. Those who could run left everything and fled.

We were a hunted people with no land, no home. That was when the Kandhas here gave us refuge. And we are grateful for it.

But two hundred years have passed. We too belong to this land now.

And life has not been very easy for us in these two hundred years. The Kandhas have called us untouchables. We are not allowed to enter their homes. We are not allowed to touch them. Even today, a Pano will not enter the house of a Kandha in many parts of this district.

For how long should we put up with this sort of thing? We have been hunted and discriminated against for so long. We live in a country where caste no longer matters and we are smarter than the Kandhas. We have a chance of building a better life for ourselves. Why shouldn't we?

Tell me – if I am so poor that my children do not have enough food to eat and a man comes as says he will feed them if I pray to another god – will I refuse? After all, what have Hindu men done for me? Have they come to my house when my child was sick? Have they brought me clothes, food, money or education?

We have always been the untouchables in our own religion. So why should we have any allegiance to such gods who discriminate?

Jesus says all men are equal. I like that. I don't want to be untouchable anymore.

But look at our laws. If I want to get justice for the discrimination my people faced in the past, I have to remain a schedule caste. If I become a Christian, I will lose job and land reservation rights. So I have to chose.

And the Kandhas don’t like us becoming rich. We are more educated, we have good jobs, missionaries look after us. So they feel jealous of us. They think they are the kings so they should always be more powerful than us.

But really, the time of kings is gone, isn’t it? Isn’t this a country where all men are equal?

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Walking a mile in every man's shoes: Part 1.

2008-10-22T12:48:00Z

There is only one way to understand someone's life: walk a mile in his shoes.
Over the next few blogs, I will try to do just that and explore the world from the eyes of a Kandha, a Pano, a Hindu activist, a Christian missionary, and various political parties in an effort to show how every group has a different take on this conflict.

Walking a mile in Kandha shoes:

I live in the land that my forefathers ruled. These mountains, rivers, jungles have sustained my people for centuries beyond count. So many have tried to take it away from us. We defeated everyone. We are fighters that way and we don’t care about dying.

Still, if someone wants something from us, we will happily give it. That is why, when the Panos came to us two hundred years ago because their king had exiled them from their own home, we took them in. They came to us for refuge and my ancestors gave them shelter. For two centuries, we took care of them.

But everything began to change 60 years ago. India became independent.

I don’t know if my fathers and grandfathers understood what it meant. Men in starched, white dhotis came from Delhi to explain the meaning of India, democracy and independence to them. I really don’t know if they understood all that. Votes, vote banks, elections, democracy - it must have been rather overwhelming for them.

You see, we don’t think too much. We worship nature and have learned to accept life the way it comes.

Anyway, everything began to change after independence.

And we don’t like change. In our tribal world, things are made to endure. We eat what our ancestors ate. We wear what they wore. We pray to the gods they prayed to.
But Panos, who had depended on us for everything, were changing quickly. They didn’t mind all that change. Those Christian missionaries came here with schools, medicine, clothes and money. And the Panos did not mind saying strange prayers in a strange language in return for all those things. Their children went to schools and learned new things.

Slowly we realized that Panos had become powerful. Whenever we went to government offices to get our work done, a Pano would be sitting in a big chair, giving orders. If we had trouble, we had to take a Pano with us to explain our problem to the officer.

Our subjects are now controlling our lives. Slowly, slowly they cheated us of our lands. Now my leaders tell me they have brought a court order that will take away our jobs. They already live in better houses, wear better clothes, eat better food. They even have cycles.

We still walk everywhere. And we are supposed to be the kings.

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Of airport donations and a long drive

2008-10-19T12:41:00Z

Hyderabad city is still to get used to the idea of a swank new airport, perhaps the grandest India has as of now, located several kilometers outside the main town as my adventurous ride to the airport revealed. I used the word "adventurous" to cover up my own faults.

On my way back to Delhi to catch a 7:15 pm IndiGo flight, which despite the expectation of being half-empty had not a single seat free, I had planned to get out of the centrally located old Hyderabad airport at Begumpet atleast three hours ahead. It of course did not work out the way I had thought. So after picking up my baggage, which by now had swelled with the weight of corporate CDs, fliers, magazines and what not from the airshow, I left my hotel at 5 pm only. I will never make it in time, I thought....

The group of half a dozen people at the hotel, which I was supposed to be a part of had left 10 minutes back. There was no cab in sight. I waived an auto rickshaw and asked how much will it take to go to the airport. “Jungle,” I heard him saying, “500.” No, I said. “Taxi takes Rs 800,” he told me after we settled for Rs 400.

The auto driver who called himself Krishna was certainly brave I realized later. For one, he did not know the directions where the airport was, once he was out of the main city (to add to confusion there were nearly no signposts on the entire stretch except once perhaps). And two, as I figured out in that drive, auto rickshaws don’t go to the airport. People are ferried from the main city by either airport coaches or taxis. By 6 pm I was finally docked into the new airport. I took out Rs 500 to pay, expecting the change back. This driver gave me a change of two Rs 50 and continued looking before saying; “I got you here- in time” he smiled reminding me of his promise of reaching in an hour. Obviously he expected that I would return him the change he has given me but I had very little cash left with me and there were expenses to be paid at the airport because its ‘new’ and the low cost airline will require me to dish out for the sandwiches as well. I said thanks and boarded a coach for the departure gates.

Hyderabad’s India Aviation airshow will always be remembered as a high drama Hollywood/ bollywood movie– a sort of a much-drummed pre-Diwali release- call it the Jet Force One (produced by Mr. Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways & Mr. Vijay Mallya of Kingfisher Airlines who also has a Formula One team) the movie came out with the right teasers (read the photo opportunity in Mumbai few days before the show). The storyline for this one though also had kidnapping and ransom much like the original movie. However here instead of the release of terrorists, the ransom was release of government funds (the threat- we are sacking employees). But unfortunately the plot got garbled and the movie ended with a lot of egg on the faces of the producers and the directors (assuming you know who the directors were or if you don’t know then you should check with Mr. Praful Patel).

The movie bombed . But there is little reason to believe that things are going to be vastly different for the employees that were reinstated will not be out soon in some ways or the other. Many could be on way out gradually, officials say, as the airlines will largely keep a low profile for next one and half years. Expats especially are likely to get the boot first as they are too expensive for the companies.

Meanwhile, at the new airport, it was check in time for the baggage. The person standing right ahead of me, who said he works for a power company in Delhi and had come from Bangalore for a business trip, was still taking long and I realized he had not paid Rs 375. That’s the money you got to pay the airport before you can demand your ticket from the airline. “What is that, some sort of donation? Is it only for this airport, I never paid it in Bangalore or any other airport,” he was telling the check-in fellow demanding his company-paid ticket. “Its not an IndiGo fee Sir, its for the airport. From next month we will start charging it on the ticket. You can pay it there and come back. You need not stand in the queue again to check in,” this fellow told him as he grumbled before making way for my flight back.

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No aircraft orders as airshow comes to a close

2008-10-17T10:54:00Z

"Boeing ended the airshow with 200 aircraft orders from a dozen customers but Airbus won the largest ever order today beating its arch rival in total order book".

Nobody expected to read headlines like these from the first ever civilian airshow in India. So it was at Hyderabad. Usually, the rivalry between two of the world's largest aircraft manufacturers is the centre piece of any airshow worldwide. One tries to outdo the other by squeezing as many orders. Nothing close to that was visible at the Hyderabad's India Aviation Airshow as it drew to a close.

Not a single new order was announced by the two majors though both declined to reduce their market forecast which expects India to buy another 1000 aircraft over the next twenty years. Possibly, who knows? But as of today that was "wishful thinking", as one top domestic airline executive told me.

Just to give a sense of the relationship between an airshow and aircraft orders - Nearly 700 aircraft, according to various reports, were announced at the Paris Airshow last year in June- including a fairly large one by India's Kingfisher Airlines (15 A350 XWB, 5 A340-500, 10 A330 and 20 A320 family aircraft). In November the same year, Dubai Airshow traded 350 aircraft orders valued US$69.7 billion. By July this year, at the Farnborough Airshow, orders worth US$64 billion were sealed.

In Hyderabad's -now closed for commercial operations- Begumpet airport, Airbus instead said it has sold off Kingfisher's 5 A340 ultra long haul aircraft to other carriers as per its discussions with the airline.

There could be multiple reasons why there were no real orders clinched- or announced atleast. For one, global economic crisis means India's airlines are in no mood to continue their dream international expansion or domestic expansion as they have done over the past few years. Two, the Hyderabad airshow was the first civilian airshow (just over two dozen aircraft on display) in India- much similar to Dubai's 1989 start with 200 exhibits and 25 aircraft (its gone up to over 500 exhibits and 85 aircraft displayed now). And lastly it could also have been due to the absence of any international carriers- the usual suspects like Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad, and Dubai Aerospace Enterprise who have been ordering hundreds of aircraft were not in attendance here.

In recent memory, it was perhaps the first ever show where Airbus and Boeing didnt open their scorecard. Was it the first time? Boeing's senior vice president Dinesh Keskar stopped to think for a moment, then said : I can tell you...it's certainly my first.

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Airbus A380 lands in Hyderabad amidst the gloom of employee layoffs

2008-10-16T08:40:00Z

Flying 10 hours non-stop from Toulouse, the world's largest passenger aircraft Airbus A380 landed at India's first civilian airshow in Hyderabad's Begumpet Airport just after the clock struck noon.

Swarming crowds that had gathered to witness the giant double-decker aircraft, amidst an air show that was marked with growth projections of India's aviation industry on one hand, together with layoffs by the country's leading airlines on the other, was applauded by those that had gathered for over an hour to watch the landing.

In the two days that the show has been on, over 2000 employees- the largest ever in recent memory- have been sacked by India's top airline Jet Airways amidst whispers that more can follow. Kingfisher Airlines, the second biggest, refrained from any 'immediate' layoff announcements. National carrier Air India which has 33,000 employees, too offered an olive branch to its employees, saying it was instead offering employees leave without pay- it is not laying off people it maintained. "(It is) considering offering 3 to 4 years leave without pay package to people who opt for it," the airline said in a Day 2 statement. It was quick to add that "15,000 employees (were) eligible" – nearly half its workforce- for the leave without pay offer.

Earlier, inaugurating the show, civil aviation minister Praful Patel called it a "modest beginning" that has set the ball rolling, even as in Mumbai, not far from Hyderabad, Jet Airway's employees took to the streets in protest. It is unclear how will the several wannabe crew and pilots will adjust to the new ground reality if the trend continues especially since hiring is unlikely to start anytime soon with even Air India chairman Raghu Menon saying the airline has a shortfall mostly for the new generation Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft which starts joining the fleet late next year. Many aspiring candidates who have invested huge sums in training are likely to face difficult times paying EMIs (equated monthly installments) for education loans that kick in soon after they are done with their training – and can run into thousands of rupees in payback each month.

"It was a bad time," a top civil aviation ministry official complained in passing, referring to India's airlines timing their announcement of lay-offs coinciding with the air show, forcing even civil aviation minister Patel to hop over to Mumbai yesterday late evening before flying back to Hyderabad for the dinner he had hosted to welcome international delegates at the Falaknuma Palace located on a hill overlooking Hyderabad city.

Given the low-mood at India Aviation, of what was expected to be India's answer to the Farnbourgh Airshow, when it was announced last year- amidst cheap airfares, domestic airlines expanding their route network, Kingfisher Airlines planning to launch one of the world's longest flight between Bangalore-San Francisco- A380's landing was the only time that the gathered crowd at the Hyderabad airport cheered and clapped.

After making a low fly pass, the largely empty test aircraft with just 20-seats flying the Airbus chief operating officer John Leahy in it, landed gently flashing the Indian flag from its window, amidst uproar by crowds and photographers from around the world. It ended its journey by a cool water salute as temperatures outside soared 29°C . Hyderabad joined nearly 70 other airports to have welcomed the big bird.

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Back in Mumbai: Kanpur wrap-up

2008-09-26T16:27:00Z

When I got this assignment to go to Kanpur to cover Baba Ramdev's Ganga Raksha Andolan, I was excited. You see, I love the river: one of my most memorable vacations was a trek to Gaumukh, the glacier where the Ganga originates. Five years ago, I married my dearest friend at Anandkashi, on the banks of the Ganga.

But the Ganga in Kanpur is a ravaged river now and everyone is utterly confused about how to fix the problem.

That is also my primary impression about the city and its people – chaos and confusion.

It has a few shiny malls, but its infrastructure is collapsing. Too many streets remain dark in the night because of power cuts. There are no new jobs coming here. Culturally, it seems mired in another age: billboards of Priyanka Chopra looking sultry and hot loom over busy intersections, but fashionable girls are missing from the landscape. Most young women here are attired in appropriately loose salwar kameez with a dupatta thrown across both shoulders, ferried around cycle rickshaws pulled by gaunt men. One Indian Airlines flight goes from Delhi to Kanpur everyday, but other commercial airlines say they have no routes to this city of 30 lakh people, because the airport has been closed for commercial use. The population is growing, but the sewage network was forgotten, so now the existing network caters to just 40% of its population. The rest just dump their filth into septic tanks.

And yet again, I have returned to the sewage question. But this question has become inextricable from the prosperity and growth of this city.

I suspect that residents know this too, because even a rickshaw puller outside my hotel knew the meaning of mld (million liters a day) and an STP (sewage treatment plant), terms that not many of us know.

He even had a theory about the sewage mess: ‘sab paisa khate hain. Paper pe plant chalate hain. Usko chalane ka paisa lete hain aur bina plant chalaye hi kha jate hain.’ (All of them are corrupt. They run the plant on paper, take money to operate it and then siphon off the money without actually running it.)

Of course, he has no evidence to back up his idea, but the fact the perception of corruption runs so deep, does make one wonder: What is really going on with the Ganga action plan and the sewage treatment issues of the city?

The answer to that question will also be the way forward for this city that was once famous for its industries and development. And only when Kanpur resolves this problem, can the abuse of the river end.

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Walking through Kanpur's tannery street

2008-09-26T12:23:00Z

Walking through Kanpur’s tanneries:

Fourteen-year-old Nadeem’s greatest ambition in life is to work on uppers, or separating the first layer of cow or buffalo hide from its other seven layers.

That is why he goes to school, he says. Not to become a doctor, engineer or lawyer, but to become a daily wager at a tannery – carrying raw hide on his head to chemical beds or sorting through animal horns, hooves and hair – to earn a salary of Rs 2,000- 3,000. If he is lucky and becomes a thekedar, or manager, he might make about Rs 15, 000 every month.

He seemed bright and I didn’t see his logic, so I asked, ‘Wouldn’t you like to go Lucknow or Delhi and go to college?’ He considered the idea for a moment and said, "Nahi. Wahan mein kya karoonga?" – No. What will I do there? The idea that he could study more and live a different life than the one he has known has not occurred to him.

That evening, I walked down the streets and by lanes that are home to Kanpur’s tanneries to look at places where Nadeem hoped to work someday.

The light was fading in streaks of navy and gray when I reached the Sunrise Tannery building. Anil Kumar, a lone guard agreed to show us the ‘cleaning room’, where raw hides are ‘de-lived’ with chemicals and prepared for processing.

An orange light dangled tentatively from the ceiling in the room where a gigantic drum slowly spun on its axis. With every rotation, it dipped cowhide into the chemical bed under it. A small embankment was meant to contain the liquid chemicals, but with every turn of the drum, the hide spilled some chemicals out on the muddy ground below, from where it ran into a sewer, apparently to the sewage treatment plant in Jajmau area of Kanpur.

Actually, it was not going to the treatment plant. S. Pal, a government official at the Kanpur Jal Nigam had just shown me the condition of pipes outside that were meant to carry that chemical waste. "All the pipes are choked and full of hard debris. No sewage is being transported from here at all," said Pal. So those chemicals were either going into the domestic sewage line of the city or were going straight into the river that was barely 200 yards away.

Outside the tannery gates, a surreal world enfolded. The street was dark – the streetlights almost never work here and there were sporadic clusters of desolate shops and dhabas, or eating places, with meat cooking over roaring fires. Factory workers shuffled under plastic sheets propped by bamboos, where their wives sold tea during the day and slept by night.

At little intervals there were mounds of debris, all pulled out from the choked sewage lines. It had just rained that morning, so the sludge had slid over the street and squished violently as we walked. I squirmed in my flip-flops, but around me, no one seemed to mind, or even notice. I tried not to think about the squishing, when I saw something completely disorienting: a fruit-hawker, slowly pushing his banana and orange cart through the slush. It felt like stumbling on a fragment of normal life in an alien country.

Sensing my reaction, Anil Kumar shrugged and said, "We manage." He is a vegetarian from a nearby village and amidst the overpowering stench he manages to get by. "It was difficult in the first few months. Now, its not so bad."

It is impossible to leave from this street without realizing that this job and this life are another world altogether. This is the world that Nadeem knows. I left understanding his response better, for how can he dream of schools, colleges and degrees while he lives here?

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Back in Delhi: Nepal recap

2008-09-23T10:57:00Z

I had a very clear cut brief--exhaustively cover the changing dynamics in a country, that is the latest entrant to the democratic club. Well that covers a lot. As I am sitting at my work station in my office and trying to find some kind of structure in my notes, I remember, my five days in the Himalayan country.The country is light years behind us on the infrastructure front. However, what do you expect of a country that has witnessed one of the bloodiest civil war in the recent times, that continued for more than a decade? The ministers' ideology, fresh out of the jungle, is still intact and yet to be corrupted by political pragmatism.

The people are friendly and trying to deal with the hand that luck has dealt them. There are different forces at work in Nepal with the ordinary Nepali looking quite lost. There is hope and despair at the same time. A large part of the population, primarily youth, are convinced that it is the United States or Europe where fortunes has to be made. Nepal, also once referred to as Mohini, is not attractive enough to keep its young back.

Unlike the leaders at the helm, the people in the street have to face the mundane issues of existence such as rising prices, unavailability of basic items, and unemployment among others. An old friend from Ramjas days told me that if he is able to get his car's tank full once a year, he would sustain on that "high" for another. We as a country have been very fortunate but what did we Indians do to help Nepal, apart from stirring the already hot cauldron with our half-baked policies, which ultimately back fired? We alienated the rural masses by supporting the Nepali Congress against the Maoist and are today trying our level best to play the perfect host to our one time adversary.

However after meeting Alok Nembang and Mr Aggarwal, I think all is not lost. There is a lot of potential in the country provided this peace process continues. Wife tells me, that we should be there soon.

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Long day: Nepal Day 5

2008-09-22T14:01:00Z

2.30 pm The Jetlite flight is delayed. Every time a flight takes off and lands at the airport, the cable for the waiting room television goes off. 3.10 pm I am on the way to board the flight. To my horror, I find another serpentine queue for yet another security check. Jet insists for another security check since is not impressed with the security apparatus at the Tribhuvan airport. It has been a really long day. It is raining on the tarmac. A Nepali co passenger remarks that it never used to rain in September in Nepal. Maybe it is the effect of global warming.

3.30 pm We take off for Delhi and touch down at 4.40 pm. I have slept uncomfortably through out the flight. The airhostess announces us to collect the bags from conveyor belt no-3. After the baggage episode on my first day in Kathmandu, it sounds like music to my ears. However, my misfortune follows me to Delhi. It is 5.30 pm at conveyor belt no-3 and still there is no sign of my bag. Thankfully, my notebooks and the interview recordings are in my hand baggage. As I am waiting for my bag, Michelle from France who runs a tourist business for foreigners in India throws her hands up in the air and says exasperatedly, “Jet is very good. Jetlite though costs less, makes you pay in other ways.”

Well, that is the story of my life. I finally get my bag at around 6 pm and rush off to meet the peak hour Delhi traffic.

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