I was way too tired yesterday to write a blog. By the time shooting was done, I had to write some quick reports and import everything onto my computer. I found myself with just enough energy to change and collapse into bed.
Some quick thoughts before I head out for some more interviews. The slum I'm in right now has in a way opened my eyes a little to the nature of some of the poverty in metropolitan cities like Bangalore. From my window I can see ITPL and a host of other buildings belonging to foreign IT firms, all competing for space on the skyline. Yesterday, my interview with the CDC project leader was interrupted by a helicopter landing barely 200 meters away at a helipad belonging to the local MLA! Needless to say, a shiny, dark-blue Bell looked incredibly incongruous landing in a place like Neallurahalli.
At first you notice what most people will instantly notice - the gulf. Rich there, poor here. Money there, poverty here. The relationship, however, is a little more complex then that. I've written before somewhere that the nature of poverty in India, particularly urban poverty, is very different from say the favelas of Brazil where the poor are spatially far removed from the rich. Urban Indians see and interact with the urban poor on a daily basis. Although they may still be spatially removed from the urban rich, there is a certain level of economic integration that exists. In Neallurahalli, most of the women are house-keepers at the mansions that reside right outside the slum. According to the CDC project leader, they earn upwards of Rs. 3,000 per house and the usually work in 4-5 houses every day. Similarly the men-folk take up blue-collar jobs at nearby IT firms. In fact, the problem with most families is not income generation. There is plenty of money to be earned. The problem is saving and investing, skills that most illiterate parents here don't possess. It's ironic. You find families that earn upwards of Rs. 20,000 per month still steeped in poverty and debt.
The CDC here runs self-help groups for the women that help them save and from some of the members I met yesterday, I can see how much of a difference its making. It inculcates a habit of saving. It encourages prudential spending, helps families priorities their expenses and spend on their children more. It, itself, is a quasi-financial institution and through their interaction with it, the women get accustomed to a system of depositing and withdrawing, of loans and interest, etc. Most importantly, it steers families away from local money-lenders. I think there's much to learn from this model.
We visited some of the homes yesterday and some of the stories were incredibly touching. We met a Manipuri family of five who live in a house a third of the size of my bedroom. They have two rooms: a kitchen and a bedroom/living-room/bathroom. I still struggle to imagine how that works. My mind, honestly, could not compute how five people could all lie down at the same time in that room. And yet they consistently give back to the community. Last Christmas, they donated all the rice for the community Christmas meal. We also went to one of more disadvantaged sections of Neallurahalli, a laborers camp. The houses here are tin-shed, there is no sewage system or source of water. Electricity and firewood are provided by the construction company that hires most of the inhabitants of the camp. Once again, income-wise, most of the people here earn hefty sums but lack the means to make use of it to escape their poverty. Most of the families there are migrants from North Karnataka, all in search of a better life.
Anyways, I have a day to start. A quick blog, unformed blog will not do justice to some of the things I want to write about, particularly the personal stories for NCM-India. Day one was interesting. As the week progresses and we move to new locations, we'll be getting progressively less urban. I don't even know if I'll have internet connectivity in some of the places. But I'll try blogging as much as I can.
Cheers.