Contrasts in Village Life

Today is a typical Friday here- I almost ran into a cow walking down our alley this morning, watched the children of the dalit (lowest caste) community unload a rickshaw of garbage, sidestepped cow manure and construction material while walking down a street with large homes behind gates, and made it here to the library at Seva Mandir in about 4 minutes time. While this week has been relatively quiet here, I wanted to share some thoughts about the contrasts in the town where I am working- Delwara, about 30 km north of Udaipur, up and down a winding mountain "highway," upon which bikes, trucks heavy with marble loads, jeeps, cows, water buffalo, and monkeys all fight for space.

I have been spending this week interviewing women in the town about their ability to access water, toilets, and soild waste management. I have spoken with women in a few different communties, the Bhoi, Khatik, Yadav, Muslim, and Jain (lowers castes to more wealthy communities), and I can't say any of them have it easy. While better than the Meghwal community I interviewed inititally (no water connections, closest open field for bathroom use is 3km away), I wouldn't call it a secure access to water. As I am learning, having a government provided water connection does not guarantee water access- it can come anywhere from once every 2-4 days, and less frequently in draughts. Some people have latrines, some have to walk to open fields next to the national highway, where the women have to fend off passing truck drivers who often stop to whistle. There are some encouraging moments of resistence to the poor water conditions here- women in one community blocked the national highway until someone from the government came to fix their water pump. But there is still much here to be desired.

So, a few days ago I was a little bored, as my translator had to do some other work, and I just couldn't read any more of my book so I decided to visit Devigarh Fort, an old palace of the king of Udaipur c. 1800s cum luxury hotel. The town of Delwara rings this fort that towers above the village below. The fort is now an exclusive luxury hotel, surrounded by gates and numorous guards, and extremely exclusive to enter, unless you are a white foreigner. Then you can walk right in without a problem. Someone from the office walked me there, and dropped me at the gate, where I was saluted by a uniformed guard and called "madam" and escorted to the next turn, where the same process happened again, and again, until I made it to the dramatic stone steps that lead to the actaul entrance of the hotel courtyard, where a uniformed staff member met me to give me a personal guided tour of the property. It is an exquisite place, perfectly maintained grounds, wonderfully preserved fort with twists and turns, well maintained architecture, and is complete with a spectacular panoramic view of the green "hill-tains" (bigger than hills, smaller than mountains?) that surround the area. I saw a lady's courtyard, complete with an original swing, that guests can still use, the different dining areas (one of them in a place where the king used to receive his audiences) and a private suite, which was pretty fabulous, and complete with a flat screen tv and screened in balcony-gazeebo. There are only about 40 suites in the place, and rooms start at Rs 18 000, and go up to about Rs 58 000.


However, once you look out over the edge of the hotel's balconies, the poverty that rings the fort is all too obvious to miss. One of the familiy's homes I interviewed shared its back wall with the towering stones that supported the fort (this home had 7 members, 4 cows, 5 goats, and one latrine that spared a septic tank with 10 others in the community). I thanked the woman for the lovely complimentary tour of the fort, and made my way out of the (original) enormous wooden doors, which had spikes protruding on the outside of them to prevent elephants from busting into the fort, back to the reality of Delwara. Through the several gates down the hill one can see the homes of Dewara's residents, monkeys jumping from rooftop to rooftop, and kids walking around without shoes. I made my way through the last gate, was saluted, and walked by my friend Bilkish's home in the muslim community, a yellow-painted house whose back fence is the first round of security gates to Delwara. Walking through a narrow alley, with a semi-flooded mud path and littered with trash, up a small the hill and stepping over the open drains, I quickly made it back to the office.

While such stark levels of clashing socio-economic statuses are obvious in this country, and make for shocking observations for many foreigners, it is important to remember that disparate living conditions exist all over the world, including in America. As my professor Dr. Dalton recently reminded me, only 7 subway stops in New York City separate the wealthest congressional district (upper east side) and the poorest congressional district (south bronx) in America, and another friend has reminded me that inequality glares at us in such dramatic terms as India, outside of America. Many people in the world live in conditions that seriously compromise their quality of life, and millions of people around the world, not just in rural Inidia, lack access to basic services, decent education, and viable economic opportunities. We needn't look far for such disparity, unfortunately it surrounds us all.


On the positive side, there are thousands of people and organizations out there in the world looking to address issues of development, and it can be really inspiring to work alongside these people. Everyone here does share the desire to work with different communities to together improve life here, and Seva Mandir, along with many other NGOs in this area, have had a long legacy of social work in Udaipur and its surrounding regions.