10 weeks in India, by Jana Light

As part of the minor International Sustainable Development Cooperation, I have had the opportunity to spend 10 weeks in India doing volunteer work with the HAN’s partner organisation, the Centre for Social Action (CSA), part of the Christ University, Bangalore.

In normal life I’m a third year Communication student, who for a long and complicated reason decided to do a minor at the HAN instead of studying abroad. Then again, volunteer work in India isn’t exactly not abroad, either.

The minor consists of 6 weeks of lessons, with classes taking place on two days a week. Subjects include research, intercultural communication, concepts, educational programme, English and digital learning. Most of those sound familiar, and those that do are mostly a refresher course for ABS students with some new elements thrown in. Since it’s a minor offered by the social studies faculty, the approach they take is less business-like and more human oriented, which makes for an interesting change. The most valuable part of the minor remains the introduction to development issues, and the in-depth discussions in class concerning the values and limitations of various aspects of developmental help.

During the 6 weeks of class you will be mentally prepared for delving into a new environment – a developing environment. Africa, India, South America are all on the list of places you can go, and the course coordinator Anne-Mieke Zaat has contacts to various development organisations operating in these countries. Through her you will establish first contact with your organisation, with whom you will then clarify your exact purpose.

You are required to spend 8 weeks working for the organisation of your choice, and are of course free to add additional time to travel the country you will be visiting. Furthermore, you will not go alone, you will always have at least one ‘buddy’ from the same course who will be visiting the same country with the same goal.

*In April 2013 we started with a blended version of this minor, this means 2 weess intensive training in August- September , online assignments during your stay abroad and a 14 week placement abroad and an intensive come back program (Anne-Mieke Zaat)

Jana: So here I am, sitting on our balcony in Bangalore, my 4 house- and work-mates going about their own business. My two buddies and I live with two social course students from the HAN who are doing a full semester internship here.

Our organisation – CSA – is a small sub-part of Christ University, one of the more prestigious universities India has to offer. CSA tries to improve live in numerous slums in Bangalore by offering activity centres, drop-out schools, and social entrepreneur programmes. One of those slums is L.R. Nagar, which is where we work.

Life in the slum isn’t as bad as it could be. Most people have brick houses (as opposed to tents), their own bathroom (as opposed to public ones or the street) and running water. The community feeling in the slum is much more prominent than in more developed parts of the city, and one genuinely feels safer walking around in the slum than in other parts of Bangalore. Nevertheless, it’s a far cry from perfect. School enrolment could be higher, as could the employment rate, and new buildings are being built to replace the decrepit ones. However, arguably the biggest problem in the slum are the garbage piles littering the streets.

Garbage is a huge problem in all of Bangalore. Wherever you go there will be rubbish on the streets, and animals foraging amongst it for food. Cows, dogs, rats and cockroaches are just a part of the zoo hoping to profit from the garbage heaps. With it comes disease, a not so fine smell, and an ever growing problem.

At the heart of the issue lies the distinct lack of recycling and waste separation in Bangalore.  The landfills are full, and the only way to combat the waste problem is to reduce, reuse and recycle.

That’s where we come in. We’ve been handed an “eco-club” – a group of 50 children, who are being sponsored by Christ University students to pay for their school fees and books – with whom we’ve been doing various activities over the past weeks to educate them on the value of the three R-s.

These activities – including an overnight excursion to a farm and Christ University’s own rather impressive recycling facility– will culminate in “clean community market” in the slum to take place next week.

The market aims to bring the awareness of the eco-club to the community as a whole, as well as serving as the introduction to the brand new community waste bins. Small waste bins for segregated waste will be handed out to the eco club families, and one big community container will be placed in the market square, as a pioneer project to see whether this will help improve the situation.

However, it’s not all in the community’s hands. If the local waste collection doesn’t show up, or if they don’t keep the sorted waste separated the community’s efforts to improve the waste situation in Bangalore will be for naught. The only upside is that the community’s own waste collectors – who sell the segregated waste and usually specialise in one kind (e.g. cardboard, metal, aluminium, etc.) will have an easier time going about their business. The animals, too, will have an easier time avoiding harmful plastics in their future meals.

There’s only so much that can be done without the government backing such initiatives, and therein lie the limitations of any development project. However, we hope to have enriched – if not improved – the lives of the people in L.R. Nagar, as much as we have enriched our own with this experience.

Furthermore, we – as well as the rest of India – have to cope with the somewhat unorganised yet very hierarchical system, which is why various aspects of the market – such as the location and the waste bins – have yet to be confirmed, with the market less than a week away. In Europe, this would be a cause for stress, but we’ve learned to take this uncertainty in our stride.

Living in India isn’t always easy, especially for females. While rape and associated crimes do happen, most Indians are shy, humble, and helpful and the worst that will most likely happen to you is that you’ll pay tourist prices and eat something that doesn’t quite sit right with your stomach. Of course it’s important to be informed about the risks, but one should not focus on them or let them dampen the experience.

India is relatively cheap, with the current exchange rate being around 70 rupias to 1€. 70 rupias can get you a meal (or two), or 4 litres of water (bottled), or a fairly large watermelon, or a couple of mangos.

Accommodation was provided for us by Christ University – two bedrooms, two bathrooms (with western toilets), a kitchen and a washing machine for less than 100€ a month per person. However, this is expensive for Indian standards (5 people paying 100€…) and cheaper accommodation is easy to find but perhaps not as nice.

The internship/volunteer work is organised very differently to Europe – we could work when we liked and we decided on our own tasks – the only requirement from the minor was that we need to do some research into a topic of our choice (ours being waste management, naturally).

It wasn’t always easy living and working with 5 people, but it (along with the work, the culture and the country) was absolutely worth it. I would recommend spending time working in a development organisation to any business student, for our skills are dearly needed and it is a truly eye-opening and skill-set expanding experience.

If you’re interested in doing the minor and/or spending time working for CSA in Bangalore, please contact Anne-Mieke Zaat at: Annemieke.Zaat@han.nl