TCE in India

Baddi has more than 3000 companies. Many migrant workers are coming into the city for work from other places in all of India. I saw a tremendous gap between the rich and the poor.
Shinichi Aihara
Himachal Pradesh TCE in Baddi

Shinichi Aihara, Japan, is from September team 2008. He was a DI in TCE in northern India, and here he tells about some of his personal impressions and observations from his 6 months in Baddi.

India is an extremely complex country, and has a million faces. Shinichi experienced closely some of the sides of India you don’t always hear so much about.

You can read about the projects of Humana People to People India here: http://www.humana-india.org/

“My TCE project area was Baddi in Himachal Pradesh state.

I lived in there from March to end of August.

In this place, the temperature was approximately 35 degrees.

Himachal Pradesh-state is North of India. This state has many hills and mountains. Because next state is Kashimir-state and Nepal is near. Himalaya Mountains are near my project area.

Baddi is an industrial area. Many companies and factories are there. And then, Heat island-phenomenon happens there. Tokyo has the same problem. There are many buildings and a lot of people are staying and living there. In this place, many people are using a lot of electricity power, oil, and gas. And Tokyo`s temperature is increasing. It is like a hot island in the ocean.

The scientists say it is heat island –phenomenon.

Baddi has more than 3000 companies. Many migrant workers are coming into the city for work from other places in all of India. I saw a tremendous gap between the rich and the poor. The education level is totally different - it varies with individuals or families.

One time, I visited the house of one big Company general manager.

I got very nice lunch in GM`s house. His wife made it. They gave to me non-spicy food. GM`s family are very nice people. They have 2 sons. One boy is always sitting in front of computer and he is playing games.

We talk about Baddi`s situation. I explained my position and the TCE project. They gave to me a lot of sympathy for my activity. I am deeply grateful to them.

But, I felt complicated feeling. They have very nice big house. But, in that moment, in the same city, many children are working outdoors. They are collecting rubbish in the street.

In Baddi, there live 4 types of people.

One type of people is the local people. They have land and they are rich. They have agriculture land. They lease land and rent houses. They are the middle class in Baddi. The second type are the migrant workers. They come from many different parts of India. They have jobs. But only temporary job.

Now, the Indian economy is growing so quickly. But if the companies financial situation and the Indian economic situation goes down, the companies will fire them quickly.

The third type are the poorest people in Baddi. They come from many village-areas in different parts of India. But they can`t speak Hindi language. In Baddi, the local language is Hindi.

If a person can`t speak Hindi, the companies don’t employ this person.

In India, there are a lot of languages. The national language is Hindi. There are 18 official languages.

But, unofficial languages are more than 800. Oh my god!!!

I learned from Indian people. For example, in the countryside, two villages can have a distance of only 4-10 kilometers. But they are speaking different languages.

Some people can`t speak Hindi. They are speaking their languages. They can`t work in companies. They are looking for another survival way. Some people are doing commercial sex work and other people are doing physical labor. In India, many women are doing physical labor work. It is amazing for me. In Japan, almost only men are doing this type of job.

And other people have small business. They pick up rubbish on the street and sell it.

The fourth type of people are the richest in Baddi. For example, they are company owners, general managers or have high position in Companies. They have high education and nice jobs.

Our area (Baddi) has 8 slum-camp areas. Indian people are calling them Jugy or Jogy people. It mean Gipsy in English. They are not local people. The biggest camp have more than 1000 people. Minimum size -camp has 30 or 50 people.

In summer time, the highest temperature is 50 degrees in this season. Maybe you can imagine, they are living inside tents. This tent doesn’t have refrigerator、electric fan　and air conditioner. And some people survive by doing physical labor work and some people are doing commercial sex work and crime. They also make a living by raising livestock. But the livestock are drinking contaminated water and eating rubbish.

Then people are eating this meat and eggs. I think it is really not good for their health.

I saw in a tent a mother catching lice and fleas from her children for a long time. And we can see so many flies. Actually, hygiene facilities and sanitation are not good in these camps. First time, I thought sanitation problems are connected to poverty. Of course, it is connected. But the problem is not only poverty. If you go to local people living village, you can see some building is gorgeous. But the road is very dirty. Because, people through out a lot of rubbish from their house. They are not poor. But they don`t care about it. If you are traveling in India, you can see a lot of rubbish. I am worry about this type of attitude.

Baddi is an industrial area. More than 3.000 private corporations build factories.

From 2010, corporation tax will be free. The government will invite more and more factories to come to Baddi. Now a lot of factories are under construction

Our area already has a lot of environmental problems. The climate is changing so quickly. Baddi has a lot of pollution. Air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, and erosion, garbage pollution etc.

From middle of July, the weather suddenly changed. Because, rain season started in Baddi. Temperature went down from 47 degrees to 34 degrees. First time. I was glad.

I thought I would sleep well. But it was too optimistic thinking. Many flies and mosquitos were coming. I used repellant every night. But now I am thinking of it. I was lucky.

Because, the malaria problem is not happening here.

One day of the August, our Deputy Division Commander said to me:

“ I would like you to teach English and give to presentation about any topics to field officers.” It became a new task for me since this day. I and 2 Indian DI`s started to prepare English lessons in troop meeting in every Friday.

I chose topics from India. I found for example this topic: “Malaria has started spreading slowly in north area of India.”

So I gave lessons of this topic to Field Officers. This topic is really useful to them.

Shinichi Aihara
Himachal Pradesh TCE in Baddi