Week Two from India
So another week has gone by here in Mumbai, India. This week for us has been quite exhausting. We're working too much. I feel like I have five Marie Dennises on this trip (note: That joke's only for my Pax Christi friends), with the schedule that my fellow team members keep pushing. But all is going well.
Not much down time, though I am shopping and sight-seeing in spurts. The Colaba area of Bombay is like a tourist's haven, and you can't walk four inches w/out running into a place that sells engraved keychains, stolls, scarves, leather jackets, drums, seven-foot tall balloons in the shape of bowling pins, tacky t-shirts, hundreds of flavors of incense...you name it, and this area has it. Even kitchen sinks, so the cliche rings true!
The poverty of this place still overwhelms me. They say during monsoon season (summer) that people on the streets get flooded away, thus losing their homes (shacks), or if they don't have homes, losing the piece of the foot path that they sleep on. I can't imagine what that must be like, given that 70% of the city lives on the streets. Add that to the booming mosquito population in monsoon season, and this place would seem to be toxic.
But against the poverty backdrop is also the overwhelming presence of tourists from all over the world, and non-resident Indians who travel back to the motherland around this time b/c the weather is so hospitable. It's a sociologist's dream to watch the "World Traveler" population mesh with the locals. I find it difficult myself. I gave money to a woman w/ child begging the other day, and the next thing I knew I had a dozen women w/ children around me. Overwhelming.
As for the work, like I said it's keeping us busy. On Monday I met w/ the Cancer Patients Aid Association, which is the chief petitioner in an ongoing case against drug giant Novartis. The drug company wants to obtain exclusive marketing rights for a life-saving drug over here, which would mean that no generic reproduction would take place...and Novartis would charge approx. $1,200 USD for a one month supply. There aren't too many people over here who could afford $1,200 USD a month for cancer medication, so the thought of not having a generic for these patients to access is
staggering. The case is historic, in that it also could mean that pharmaceutical giants could prevent generic reproduction of other life-saving drugs, which would literally deny millions of patients of cancer, AIDS, TB, and more the needed medication they have to have to live (since paying full price for medication is not an option for millions in the developnig world). It makes me so angry. For those who have seen "The Constant Gardener," many of the same issues covered in that movie (sans the Hollywood-ness of the film) are in full light over here in India.
This week we also dug further into our investigation of prisons, meeting with a dozen different organizations and individuals. There was the criminal justice professor who led a study on public health in prisons (coming to the conclusion that for every 250 inmates, there is one doctor, who works approximately 10 minutes a week). There was the theater group that puts on plays for inmates. The sex worker organization that works with women who are currently selling sex (many of whom have been arrested
multiple times for soliciting). The education group that goes into prisons teaching literacy. And more.
The work this week brought me back to my social work days, as we talked to several groups that work exclusively within the criminal justice system, and were hesitant (if not unwilling) to criticize any of the conditions faced by prisoners, as it might jeopardize the very good rehab work they are trying to do. In class back in my undergrad days, there would always be discussions about working w/in the system vs. working outside of the system. That debate was alive and well this week, as organizations were willing to overlook horrendous conditions (i.e. no doctors, bad water, drugs, sexual violence, etc.), in lieu of having access to prisons where they could work one-on-one with rehabilitating inmates within India's criminal justice
system. It's inappropriate to question the motivations of organizations and
individuals, but I certainly found it frustrating that an organization running great social programs in prisons (literacy, HIV/AIDS education, ministry, yoga, etc.) could overlook the fact that prisoners have no room to sleep, suffer violence from guards and inmates, drink contaminated water, etc. Such a hard issue to navigate...if they raise a stink about these issues, and they lose their access to prisons, then the prisoners lose out on the literacy training, the HIV/AIDS education, the yoga classes and more that these groups bring...
Anyway, I'm blabbering. That's all just to say that systems are complex, and it's hard for me to figure out for myself when it's necessary to close your eyes to injustice in order to provide much needed services.
Lastly, our team took a two-hour trip to Pune, another city here in India. We met with a lawyer who works for an organization called Human Rights Lawyers and Defenders. A great guy, with an office that feels more like a family than a workplace. He dropped everything to meet with us, and then facilitated a meeting between us and a researcher with the inspector general of prisons. Later that night, he took us to a restaurant to meet with some Bollywood star that was trained as a psychiatrist. The man was boring as hell, but hey, at least I got to have a drink with a Bollywood star!
That's it for now...I'm off to go find the rest of the members of our team. It's 7pm here in mumbai, a good 10.5 hours ahead of Boston. We're just ending our day, and you all are just beginning. Have a great weekend! I will try to send one more update next week, as we may get access to one or two prisons, and I'll be eager to share the details of what we saw.
All the best, and much love!
-Mike
Not much down time, though I am shopping and sight-seeing in spurts. The Colaba area of Bombay is like a tourist's haven, and you can't walk four inches w/out running into a place that sells engraved keychains, stolls, scarves, leather jackets, drums, seven-foot tall balloons in the shape of bowling pins, tacky t-shirts, hundreds of flavors of incense...you name it, and this area has it. Even kitchen sinks, so the cliche rings true!
The poverty of this place still overwhelms me. They say during monsoon season (summer) that people on the streets get flooded away, thus losing their homes (shacks), or if they don't have homes, losing the piece of the foot path that they sleep on. I can't imagine what that must be like, given that 70% of the city lives on the streets. Add that to the booming mosquito population in monsoon season, and this place would seem to be toxic.
But against the poverty backdrop is also the overwhelming presence of tourists from all over the world, and non-resident Indians who travel back to the motherland around this time b/c the weather is so hospitable. It's a sociologist's dream to watch the "World Traveler" population mesh with the locals. I find it difficult myself. I gave money to a woman w/ child begging the other day, and the next thing I knew I had a dozen women w/ children around me. Overwhelming.
As for the work, like I said it's keeping us busy. On Monday I met w/ the Cancer Patients Aid Association, which is the chief petitioner in an ongoing case against drug giant Novartis. The drug company wants to obtain exclusive marketing rights for a life-saving drug over here, which would mean that no generic reproduction would take place...and Novartis would charge approx. $1,200 USD for a one month supply. There aren't too many people over here who could afford $1,200 USD a month for cancer medication, so the thought of not having a generic for these patients to access is
staggering. The case is historic, in that it also could mean that pharmaceutical giants could prevent generic reproduction of other life-saving drugs, which would literally deny millions of patients of cancer, AIDS, TB, and more the needed medication they have to have to live (since paying full price for medication is not an option for millions in the developnig world). It makes me so angry. For those who have seen "The Constant Gardener," many of the same issues covered in that movie (sans the Hollywood-ness of the film) are in full light over here in India.
This week we also dug further into our investigation of prisons, meeting with a dozen different organizations and individuals. There was the criminal justice professor who led a study on public health in prisons (coming to the conclusion that for every 250 inmates, there is one doctor, who works approximately 10 minutes a week). There was the theater group that puts on plays for inmates. The sex worker organization that works with women who are currently selling sex (many of whom have been arrested
multiple times for soliciting). The education group that goes into prisons teaching literacy. And more.
The work this week brought me back to my social work days, as we talked to several groups that work exclusively within the criminal justice system, and were hesitant (if not unwilling) to criticize any of the conditions faced by prisoners, as it might jeopardize the very good rehab work they are trying to do. In class back in my undergrad days, there would always be discussions about working w/in the system vs. working outside of the system. That debate was alive and well this week, as organizations were willing to overlook horrendous conditions (i.e. no doctors, bad water, drugs, sexual violence, etc.), in lieu of having access to prisons where they could work one-on-one with rehabilitating inmates within India's criminal justice
system. It's inappropriate to question the motivations of organizations and
individuals, but I certainly found it frustrating that an organization running great social programs in prisons (literacy, HIV/AIDS education, ministry, yoga, etc.) could overlook the fact that prisoners have no room to sleep, suffer violence from guards and inmates, drink contaminated water, etc. Such a hard issue to navigate...if they raise a stink about these issues, and they lose their access to prisons, then the prisoners lose out on the literacy training, the HIV/AIDS education, the yoga classes and more that these groups bring...
Anyway, I'm blabbering. That's all just to say that systems are complex, and it's hard for me to figure out for myself when it's necessary to close your eyes to injustice in order to provide much needed services.
Lastly, our team took a two-hour trip to Pune, another city here in India. We met with a lawyer who works for an organization called Human Rights Lawyers and Defenders. A great guy, with an office that feels more like a family than a workplace. He dropped everything to meet with us, and then facilitated a meeting between us and a researcher with the inspector general of prisons. Later that night, he took us to a restaurant to meet with some Bollywood star that was trained as a psychiatrist. The man was boring as hell, but hey, at least I got to have a drink with a Bollywood star!
That's it for now...I'm off to go find the rest of the members of our team. It's 7pm here in mumbai, a good 10.5 hours ahead of Boston. We're just ending our day, and you all are just beginning. Have a great weekend! I will try to send one more update next week, as we may get access to one or two prisons, and I'll be eager to share the details of what we saw.
All the best, and much love!
-Mike
posted by MikeJ at
8:45 AM
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