Developmentphile: Internship Placement and a Revealing Tribal Visit

Last Thursday, after many weeks of anticipation, we finally found out our internship placements. I will be working at the Parvati Self-Employment Group (PSW), a decade old non-profit in Pune. According to the information provided, PSW works primarily to provide micro-finance, micro-insurance, and vocational training to the “poorest of the poor,” to improve their social and economic mobility in India.

As requested, I will be heavily involved in fieldwork which means, hopefully, that I will be going out to Pune’s slums to gather information on how the organization works. Overall, my responsibilities will include observing how business training and financial literacy programs work, and perhaps most importantly, asking PSW’s clients about the non-profit’s products and their utility. Finally, I will be submitting a report on areas where there is room for improvement. 

Although I won’t be starting full time until after Diwali, so towards the end of November, I was scheduled to go visit the organization today. Waking up, my excitement was matched by my exhaustion so when I was told that the point of contact at PSW could not follow through, I was immensely relieved. Don’t get me wrong, I honestly cannot wait. Just like I came to India to be challenged, I chose the Alliance program because I wanted to learn more about how things work from the bottom up. But I did get some experience in this area just couple of days ago. 

This past weekend I went to the small rural village of Jawahar, Chavi just north of Mumbai. Prof. Apte, the Public Health instructor on my study abroad program, has strong ties to the community from having spent two years living in a nearby the village. A middle age Indian man with a reliable habit of chewing paan or tabacco, Prof. Apte’s familiarity with the region provided the group with the rare chance to observe the state of affairs of tribal people in the country. 

On the second day there, I visited a local family’s farm and a primary public health center that caters to the roughly 35,000 people. During the the first part of the day, my breezy salwar kameez kept me cool as I paced around the manicured plantation that provided sustenance for a family of five. The family that owned the land has been working with an non-profit in three-year program to increase production, stability, quality, and size of their produce. Or as my Development Economics Professor would say, they have steadily been working on improving their products to reaps more profit. See below:

Jasmin Shrubs and Cashew Trees, Indian cash crops

Worm Composting, to make organic pesticide

Rice Field

After lunch we headed over to the medical center. The physician responsible for the facility’s management was a man of no more than 35 years. Our professors explained that the he has a five-month-year-old son he had never met because his dedication to his work. The doctor, whose foreign name has now completely escaped me, followed us around as the Prof. Apte gave us a tour.  The small building stored a meticulously kept inventory of medications readily lined up to tackle venomous snake bites and chronic asthma. Its walls were a museum of candid photos for the illiterate. After wandering around the walls draped with government posters and foreign script, we were led into a room and told that we could ask the physician  some questions about the state of public health services in India. After a few questions about the protocol for disbursing medication, I inquired into mental health. Although I was uncertain about the response the open question would garner, I was completely unprepared for the exchange that followed.

“For over thirty years we have had a bill that states we must address mental illness in India, but currently there is no allocation of funds for mental health at this center,” he explained. Perhaps it was my startled expression that prompted him to add, “We have never had a consoler providing those type of services at our center.” But why not, I asked. Was mental instability not only a prevalent but pervasive problem for the tribals? Almost defensive, the Public Health professor, jumped in. “In India, we are struggling with HIV/AIDs, infant mortality due to lack of access to water, diabetes, and so many other conditions. We simply cannot allocate resources to address mental health.”

The doctors’ explanations touched on a disturbing truth: mental health is not a priority in the rural areas of India. I was shocked at the time, but not entirely surprised. Yes, I know. I must place this experience in context of my sparse knowledge I have about India, but still. I continue to be as perplexed now as I was then. Considering everything I have heard about the government’s commitment to social uplifting, do India’s leaders believe the was a way to develop the population without addressing their mental stability? Do they care enough to allocate resources? Do they care at all?

After some customary research on the subject, I have come to the conclusion, however hasty, that the current state of mental illness in India is most likely due to a trifecta of domestic and international factors. Internally, the primary obstacle is the widespread taboo that surrounds mental illness and the lack of political incentives to address it. Internationally, there is a lack of serious and cohesive commitment to improvement; the lauded Millenium Development Goals, for example, have no reference at all to mental health targets. Some more recent articles did show that India has began to take up the subject, but the tardiness is....well, I guess that’s development right?

On the last day we were split into groups and given a tour of one of the houses in the tribal village. Below are some snapshots:

A Casual Guest, filling a casual vacancy at the back of the house

The Last Cucumber in the Harvest, saved to use its seeds for the next crop

A Toy Car, made by the hands of a boy of 12 years with a bright future in engineering 

Each House Had Pumpkins Growing on its Roof, guess they are gearing up for Halloween?

On a more cheery note, have I mentioned that I am taking the violin? In short, Alliance offers ‘Cultural Expression’ classes that range from traditional dancing to playing the sitar. After a failed attempt at Indian art, I decided to learn to play the violin. With Swapna Tai. Yes, the convenient location is a plus. But Swapna is also a fabulous teacher, a role that involves not only having the patience to help me sound out the notes, but also refraining from how telling me how terrible I am at it. I’m making progress at my sa, re, ga, ma’s. Interestingly, I have also been singing more....

So enough rambling for now. I’m off to Goa tomorrow. I promise to collect stories about the Indian beaches and the not-so-Indian beach bums. :)