My slum experience!

tänkte att jag slänger in min lilla flummiga rapport från Fältstudien i slummen (inte riktig slum)... var tyvärr väldigt världelöst pga den otrevliga mannen som följde med vår grupp så vi fick inte riktigt fråga kvinnorna på kliniken något... vilket var själva poängen... Centret är en NGO som jobbar med att stärka kvinnors situation: hälsa, barnafödande, graviditet etc etc. läs och le för min fina omskrivning om varför vi inte fick ut något av besöket...


My Slum Experience, Bandra 2011-07-19
Before I start to summarize my main thoughts about today´s visit I would like to try to carry out a feeling that I have. A feeling that very much could be applied on the road trip towards the slum, just by looking out through the window of the buss. The Indian society puzzles me as well as it fascinates me. There are so many contradictions, confusing situations and “everyday-moments” that I try to understand. When I look out through the window I see people, people and everywhere people. I wonder where they all live, if they really want to live in the slum rather than in a village. I wonder about the Hindu traditions, the women´s ability of walking down the dirty streets wearing wonderful saris, but without a single spot. I wonder about how people can live in shacks along the crowded and polluted road side where one man is peeing, pigs, goats and cows are living and women are selling fruits. When I entered the slum area I think all the impressions explained above were put together and concentrated into one place. But with just one additional and very important thing: on one side of the river stood shining skyscrapers and on the other side slum with piles of garbage covering everything. Welcome to Mumbai, the Economic Capital…

The slum we visited was quite developed with a WIN clinic located in the middle of the narrow streets. The location seemed to be good since women in all ages were streaming in during that short time we visited. They had enquiries about typical female issues and in need of some kind of counseling. The atmosphere was a bit tense and the small room crowded with us and the patients. It felt like the women could not really speak up when the room also hosted some men. We were told that this was a Muslim area and that some questions could be sensitive because of religious believes. It felt good to see how many women that despite religion and gender obligations had found the health clinic to get some help and at the same time make their own lives more valuable. We were also told that the women often felt safe coming to this organization since it was free from politics and judgmental ideas. I felt like the government has to strengthen the linkage between local NGO: s and cooperate more in order to reach out to the poor in the slum of Mumbai and actually change the status of the women in India. I really liked the humanistic grassroots commitments and how much it could influence the women.
I found some strategies a bit different compared to what I am used to in Sweden. Many women wanted to take contraception in secret, instead of confronting the husband and the mother in-law about it. When the clinic is giving the woman a contraceptive in secret I feel like the main problem is being avoided. I believe that the NGO must step in and actually change the pattern of gender inequalities and encourage the women to disagree with their families. This opinion is of course easier for me as a foreigner to express, since it´s for me is hard to understand the deeply rooted tradition.
Unfortunately the complex topic of son preference did not seem to be that much discussed. Families are “holy” in India, but if a social change is about to come, some more aggressive action must be done. I believe in an equal society where women - as the NGO was promoting are FREE human beings.