Learning more about rural life in India

Yesterday I visited Nimgaon Bhogi, as I do normally on a Wednesday, but on this occasion I was given the opportunity to meet some of the mothers of the girls I teach to find out more about their way of life.

First, we got shown around their cooperative dairy (set up 7 years ago by Ashta No Kai, the NGO I am working with). The women are helped to buy cows with interest free loans. Any surplus milk they get they are able to bring to the dairy room attached to the women's centre. Samples are taken to assess the milk's quality and they are paid accordingly ... Apparently buffalo milk has the highest quality but lowest yield, whereas the white desi (local) cows have lower quality milk in greater quantity. Many of the cows they have are hybrids with European milk cows. The milk is collected by a large dairy who process, homogenize and pasteurize the milk for sale. The co-operative dairy has really supplemented their incomes.

The other main source of income for the women is farming. It's particularly busy at this time of year, with onions a good crop at the moment. They take their produce to a market about 12-13km away. Much of the labour on the farm is done by the women; many of their husbands have other jobs such as bus drivers or welders. They also own goats that they breed for mutton, and chickens for eggs and meat.

The mothers were very happy that their daughters were in school and grateful for the small contribution we make to their English language education. They admired their girls' posters on the walls in the women's centre.

They said that they like life in the village... The fresh air and open landscape. The thing that concerns them most is pollution. There is a energy plant a few kilometres away and they say they are worried about air pollution and the contamination of their water supplies... Some have now invested in water filter systems for their drinking supplies. The water they have is from a well several kilometres away and it is piped to their village. Interestingly, over 90% of the homes in the village now have their own toilet facilities which is a huge increase from when ANK started working with them.

After the mothers left, the girls came in for their lessons... We played snakes and ladders with questions to practice conversation and then the girls taught us how to play (badly) their favourite game... Koko.

I am very lucky to be involved with this NGO ... The women were very welcoming and friendly and it was a real privilege to learn more about their lives.