Shivappa and Durga live in a house that's rented out by Mr. Srinivas. I've seen them around. They help carry stuff up to where I sleep once in a while and they help Mr. Srinivas by running little errands every now and then. They're young men, not more than 20 years of age. I was a little curious as to why they were living alone in that house without any parents but never got around to asking anyone. Today, they accompanied us around Bangalore. Shivappa, in particular, looked incredibly tired. I was told he worked a night shift. I didn't get a chance to probe right then and there because we were in the middle of something at that point but that lingered in the back of my head. What night shift job?
As the day wound down and we were heading back home, I clarified with Srinivas about their night shift job. It turns out that Shivappa and Durga work in a software engineering company...
...
...as cleaners.
Not as software engineers. But, honest to God, if you didn't know how much they earned, you would have a hard time figuring out the difference:
Shivappa and Durga have medical insurance cover. They get their meals at the company canteen, the same one used by the IT professionals that work there. They get a PF. Their salary is incremented yearly. The company compensates them for their rent and travel. And if they do their work well enough, they have a fair shot of being promoted. What I was most interested was the manner in which they reacted when one of their company's pick-up cars drove past.
"Our company car."
They don't act like the outsiders called in to do the dirty work. It's their company too even if they're the ones cleaning and not sitting in front of terminals punching in code.
They earn Rs. 4,300/- right now. From next month onwards, they'll enjoy a Rs. 900/- increment. That's probably a menial sum to you and I but every single penny of that is savings. More importantly, that's more than enough to support their families back at Kolar Gold Fields, around 150 kilometers from Bangalore.
In the car, they recounted the story of a man who worked at the same IT company who was killed by a moving train. He didn't have life insurance unfortunately. But the IT professionals at the firm pooled in money and raised four lakhs which they gave to his parents. Clearly, the benefits of the job extend beyond what's in the contract.
The work they do, too, is dignified and professional. There's protocol to be followed, standards and practices to be observed. It isn't a career. Granted. It may not give the person "purpose" (as we understand "purpose"). But it's a job. And it's worlds removed from the alternative paths in life Shivappa and Durga may have ended up on.
I don't want to say anything definitive because I'm still a little ambivalent. Shivappa and Durga should've completed school (which they didn't). At the same time, a high school education in the vernacular offers little career scope. And people from backgrounds like Shivappa and Durga come from are very unlikely to have the means to pursue a college education.
I see the inherent problems in this as well and I don't have enough insight into this to settle my opinion one way or another but, at a personal level, I'm happy for Shivappa and Durga. And their families.
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I'm back in Bangalore. I was supposed to leave for Chittoor tonight but the person that was supposed to pick me up is late. (I'm a little worried because I have to cover 5 villages in four days in AP and a person with punctuality issues might be a little bit of a problem!)
Andhra Pradesh will be an entirely different story. For one, it'll be hotter. Way hotter. Secondly, I'll be spending most of my time in Chittoor, a place famous for two things: it's temples and its insanely high HIV prevalence rate (which probably has something to do with the fact that the district borders three states and hence sees heavy truck traffic). It's also a lot poorer. Karnataka, particularly South Karnataka, is relatively much more affluent. There is poverty here, people do suffer but not to the extent that they do in some of the villages I'll be visiting in Chittoor.
I'm excited and, yet, at the same time hesitant. The last thing I want to be is a poverty tourist. And truth be told, sometimes I've had to rethink some of the thoughts and even emotions I've had over the last few days to prevent myself from being that. I've had to learn how to feel compassion and not pity. How to meet those that are less fortunate than me eye to eye, as equals, as they are and should be. And I've had to learn that I, most of us, have the ability to fake ourselves into thinking we're doing the above when we're actually not - I confess: I've succumbed to patronization a few times in the last few days.
The first step to breaking out of any habit is admitting you have one. Check. The second step is believing you can change.
I can change.