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Team Reports
• Doug Cunningham
• Ted Swanston
• Marsha Hardy
• Donna Chantler
• Cathy Gregory
• Dave Dryden

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From Mumbai 2008 Photo Album

City Street in India

Cathy Gregory — Kitchener, ON

Crowds of people
Walking, talking, working, waiting.

Casually dressed office workers,
Uniformed school children carrying backpacks,
Skinny, muscled labourers
Pushing and pulling carts of propane, eggs, vegetables, or rice sacks.

A horde of humanity
On every roadside and crossing wherever
Followed by scrawny dogs and wandering cows.

Women:
Walking erect in their multi-coloured saris,
Sparkling, wispy, elegant
Faded, well-worn, thread-bare
Babies in arms
Balancing baskets piled high and wide with goods.

Cars, taxis, auto rickshaws lined up for fares.
Motorcycles, bicycles, ox carts laden with country goods.
Large “Goods Carriers” and small open-backed trucks
Packed full with product and people.
All darting back and forth oblivious of lane markings
Vying for the front
Crossing countless lanes of traffic to make a turn
With an ever-present understanding of the system of horns and power.

A cacophony of different horn beeps
Low, persistent, high, quick, musical
Giving direction to vehicles in front and beside.

Motors running, rickshaws putting,
People calling, shouting, selling:
Bananas, oranges, vegetables of every sort
Freshly ground sugar cane juice, savories and sweets.

Here am I
Sitting in the front seat beside the driver
Winding through this maze of activity
In stunned amazement.

Five times daily, the lilting call to prayer
The pace slowing for some.

Visual over-stimulation
A landscape of contrasts:
Multi-colored billboards of all sizes.
Messages written in skillfully crafted Sanskrit letters
Advertising political, religious and entertainment events

Land used up to house the millions.
Shelters of every description crammed one beside the other:
Fancy high rises and wall-protected houses,
Buildings stained grey from monsoons and pollution,
Apartments with grilled balconies for air and laundry,
Spreading slums of shacks with weighted down corrugated roofs.

Tarps and covers pitched on sidewalks and roadsides
Neighbouring the dwellings of the well-to-do.

Litter everywhere, piled and filling roadside gutters,
Swept into piles and burned on site.
Smells of burning plastic wafting from the fires.

Sights only noticed by tourists.
Nothing slows the pace, the energy or the noise
Of a city street in India.

Education in India

This trip has been a real eye-opener for us as we have visited the poorer schools both in the cities and the villages. The teachers and students smile and greet us warmly, showing their small, bare classrooms with pride. The ceilings are usually high with brightly-coloured, hanging, paper cut-outs adding a cheeriness to the room. The small blackboards have numbers and letters printed carefully on them. We rarely see books or writing materials although sometimes students’ work is displayed on the walls. One glimpse into a busy working classroom showed about fifty children sitting all over the floor, even under the teacher’s desk (the only desk and chair in the room) working with partners.

Education in India is growing in importance and more parents are seeing a need for their children to learn. In spite of this, there is an incredible difference in the educational opportunities available. On the one hand there are highly educated young people with many university degrees who enter the professional world with knowledge and confidence. On the other hand there are children who attend their small village or municipal schools trying to learn while sitting on the hard ground on which they will also eat their lunch and, if it is a boarding school, they will sleep.

It has been difficult to get a handle on the different schools. Some schools are municipal which are funded by the city. State schools tend to be in the country and get funding and curricula from the state in which it exists. The Central schools are funded by the Central Government but are for government employees. Within these systems there are English-medium schools and Marathi (or other regional languages)-medium schools. That is the main language of instruction. These would all be within a public school system. Then, of course, there are private schools. Some of these receive partial funding and others are completely private.

In spite of the excellent education of the middle and upper classes, the illiteracy rate in India is enormous and it is understandable. Attendance can depend on other demands on the child’s time, such as looking after younger children while mothers work in the fields or brickyards or working themselves to help the family. The government is now offering hot lunches at schools to encourage parents to send their children. Without supplies, space or even desks the children are often forced to learn by rote, which makes learning to read a real challenge for teachers and students. The teachers are dedicated but life is a very disciplined one for the children. After all there can easily be 50 to 70 students in a classroom.

Teachers have varying levels of education themselves, depending on the level and location at which they teach. Only high school instruction requires a university degree by the teacher. To teach in a remote village all you need is the will to do it and a space. The villagers may pay you a bit to help their children. In spite of this, in the small rural schools, the respect for the teacher is great.