India is a country of contrasts. Only 50 kilometres from Chennai, one of the largest cities, lies the community of Nandambakkam. There are a dozen huts with thatched roofs and some clothes hanging from wires. Unlike many other places, there is little garbage lying around. When you are this poor, you don’t have much to throw away.
As we enter the roadside settlement, I see a teenage girl teaching older women and men how to write their name on a small blackboard. They are all focused on their task, obviously giving it much importance. They are tribals, known as Irulas, and their people are mostly illiterate. They get some income by working as labourers in other people’s fields and by fishing in a nearby lake. They are also contracted out to catch snakes when people are disturbed by them. It is a special skill they have.
I sit and talk with them. They are outcasts, excluded from the rest of society, living as squatters on a piece of public land that floods during the monsoon season. At that time of year, they must walk through knee-high water in order to access their houses on little islands. The elder tells us that he would like to see some landfills to prevent flooding. They also tell us they eat rats from nearby fields, and that they are tasty. They think nothing of it, but in my mind I think, these are the people that we are called to work with.
Presbyterian World Service and Development partners with two local organizations, the Institute for Development Education and Roofs for the Roofless, to reach out to the Irulas, starting with basic education, health care and assistance organizing themselves so they can access services for the settlement. A women’s association has already managed to get drinking water supplied to the community as well as electricity for one light.
Deivananagi is a teenage girl hired to teach her neighbours how to read and write and to be a night school teacher for the children. She has been working for a year now. Having completed grade eight, she is one of the better-educated people in the village.
I feel proud to be working with partners just as dedicated as we are at PWS&D. I can see that young children will now have a better chance to get through school. They might get opportunities for training in trades that could lead to jobs. Despite their current circumstances, the people look happy to see me and have great hopes for a better future. I look forward to going back in a few years to see how things may have improved.
