Don't waste your time!

My friend from a land rights movement support group was aghast! She could not believe her ears. A fellow country-man landed in Delhi to 'support' the march of the tribes for land rights and seemed visibly disturbed on not finding a welcome committee with garlands, cars to take him to the venue 180 km away. He was also worried about being cheated by Indians and warned my friend against the same too! "They are basically cheats, you see!" My friend lost her cool, "Why did you come to India to stand by Indians in the first place? and you say you are a supporter!"

But, this was a Frenchman! I thought of my experience during the trips with the Indians (not bharat ke log...but Indians), mainly from donor agencies and at times national capital based NGOs, to various parts of the country. I found a similar echoing in the sentiment. They couldn't think who to blame other than the rural women for remaining unlettered and not sending their children to school! "Don't you think its shameful on your part that you still put a thumb impression?", one of them tried to be helpful to the gathered women in a Dalit village. The speech was to encourage women to study! Shameful? Yes. I bowed my head in shame and did not know where to look. 

Remember Robert Chambers' "Putting the Last First"? Wherein he talks about "development tourism" when people choose the season to travel, either autumn or spring and visit only the areas where motorcars can go? Long journeys are avoided too. Another string of story starts when they come back from these guided tours. They would like to believe that they have visited the most impoverished regions (oh yeah!) and you, on the other hand, would have to make sure you don't contradict these beliefs of important people, when they don't want to be contradicted. Gauge the mood. Can't you even do that? When you travel with them, be prepared to be told that you do not know how to deal with villagers when you don't let villagers garland the particular dignitary. Don't stop the villagers and say, "You should not felicitate us, we are just doing our work. Just like you are doing yours."! What a horrible thing to do! Not letting a big person getting garlanded and not letting people sing songs that pitch them at the same platform where reside poor villagers' 3.3 billion gods! No wonder you need to learn how to work with villagers. I had a good laugh at this special route to learning. 

The more I face these issues, the more I realize, we, all the time need to remind us what we are doing is what we should do, normally. Its nothing extraordinary. Just because most of the people don't act normal, normal does not acquire a tag of 'extraordinary'..it still remains only that...normal! Period! I often tell the NGO heads that the statement that they are in the development sector because they want liberation of other (they are fine) poor people is as true as the statement that I work in a donor agency to liberate the NGOs from the worry of funding! But now it seems you need to reward people for keep acting normal.  

I would use another reference that is often use in the popular education workshops that I facilitate. In a workshop in a rural area, after suffering for half a day a woman stood up and said, "If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time.But if you have come because your liberation is bound with mine, then let us start working together." I would like to ask, do we see our liberation bound with the liberation of the people we work with? Or, do you really think we can be liberated while half of the humanity keep lacking in food, shelter and education and face violence everyday? 

When people express that they can progress despite fellow human beings remaining in poverty, they amaze me! And I really hope this narrow vision never stops amazing me, in the same way that the 'waking up' of the people never fails to inspire me. I find nothing more inspiring than the fact that people realise that in a democracy, they have to keep pushing the system. Their realisation of their role helps me to hope for a morning for myself. This juggernaut of life, only works on people's push...they are the real drivers. And when they push it and agrees to take me along, things move for me too. What's more..I get ready to roll again!