Namaste, friends!

Well, it has officially been (slightly over) one week since our arrival in Gurgaon and we are finally settled in, over the jet lag, and buckling down on our Project. There have already been many firsts for Soumya and myself, as we are continually culture shocked with each passing day, but let’s focus first and foremost on the juicy deets of our Life Skills Education Program! We spent our first week here learning the specifics of our project and doing extensive literature review on the area to get an idea of what we would be coming into, but of course the final piece of the puzzle was put in place on Friday when we made our first field visit. As someone who would prefer cool pictures over a very wordy blog, I do apologize in advance for the lack of visual appeal here-we wanted to wait to take photographs in the villages until everyone felt more comfortable with our presence. That being said, I could probably write several pages about what we’re doing here, but I will make a valiant effort to concisely hit you with the facts.

The Squad: Soumya and I will be joined by local student Zara Hasnain, (working on her Master’s in Public Policy, you go girl) who will also be acting as our translator 

The Location: We will be working in two villages within the district of Mewat: Rawli and Mundaka

The Problem: Mewat is what we refer to as a backward region in India. In this patriarchal society, women are regularly discriminated against within their family units, which is then further reinforced within the local communities. Extensive reports reveal that these women typically marry in their early teens, are not permitted to leave the house without permission (and are in fact beaten for doing so), and are deprived of their basic rights to education, health, and self-expression. Due to the region’s dependence on agriculture as a source of income, many girls are pulled out of school early on either to be of use in fetching water, or to take care of younger siblings. As a result, literacy rates in these villages are low, and lower still (or non-existent) are the girls’ self-esteem levels. While the formative years are the time in which young people are shaping their personality and aspirations in preparation to become an active and productive adult later on, we find that the girls in Mewat are unable to do so. More concerning still is that they are not even aware of the deprivation-in previous LSE centers, they found concepts as basic as describing/expressing feelings and decision making difficult to grasp. There are in fact many government schemes put in place to help people in these villages gain access to things such as medical supplies for women’s health or reimbursement for building a family toilet, (as open defecation is a very prevalent issue) but often the people are unaware or unable to complete the necessary paperwork to receive aid. 

The Game Plan: As previously stated, we are establishing a Life Skills Education Center in the villages of Rawli and Mundaka. The program will last a total of four months, and will be taught daily by local field staff workers from the Sehgal Foundation and 1-2 days a week by Soumya, Zara, and me. The curriculum will consist of five sections: Basic Literacy, Vocational Skills, Knowledge on Health, Awareness on Rural Governance, and Self Confidence and Decision Making.  Zara, Soumya, and I will soon begin enrolling the students and administering a pre-test to the students to gather data on the severity of the situation (the same test will be given at the end of four months to analyze success of program).

We have lots to do and are very excited to get the ball rolling! During our first visits to the villages, both groups of women were very welcoming to us and seemed interested in the program, though not much was said by anyone besides our Sehgal staff, who explained the program and who we are. We expect that as time goes on the girls will warm up to us, though it appears whereas in Mundaka, many more of the girls are literate and seemed to be more lively and outgoing, it may take a bit longer in Rawli, where many are not literate and the Meo Muslim culture seems to be more oppressing, Many updates on our project to come!

On a less serious note: Soumya and I spent our first weekend here exploring Delhi, visiting India Gate, Humayun’s Tomb, Lodi Gardens, Jantar Mantar, Gurudwara Bangla Sahib (Sikh temple) and the Janpath market, just to name a few! Here’s a pic of us being cute in the Lodi Gardens with fellow intern from Baylor University, Sam Gostomski (and look, we’ve figured out how to use the GoPro).