Village Voice

 

The view from the bus - a cow and then sandstorm.

     One of the meetings we took from Bikaner was a half-day trip to a rural school, the NGO that runs programs in that area, and one village in the area. In the meeting with the NGO, we talked about the lack of schools in the area, lack of access to water, and poor health care. Like many places that we have visited, the details about basic schooling are hard to hear - a significant distance for elementary school kids to walk until about grade 5, where the school becomes even further and more unrealistic to attend. A bevy of other normal factors in the American education system are conspicuously absent (ie, a teacher is in the classroom). Trying to think of new ways to ask "But really, what else is a problem around here?", I asked if they would expand or open a service, which they would pick. The representative answered maternal health, as care for mothers as well as infants is lacking, especially for their daughters. Female infanticide and foeticide is high in that area.

Once we got to the village, we split into two groups to interview either the men or the women. We are 22 students, but 4 boys and 18 girls, of which many are interested in womens studies or empowerment, so I thought I was making a minority decision to talk with the men. Once 18 of us were headed to the men's area, I decided to swap teams and go talk with the women to even out the number in either group, and accidentally ended up having a really tough time with the answers they gave.

I wanted to follow up on the NGO's claim that maternal health was an issue, so I asked our translator (one of our Hindi teachers) to ask, "What do you hope for when your child is born? To be healthy? To be a boy?" I had added the two modifying questions to try and help hone the phrasing for translation, but it ended up being asked roughly as "Which do you prefer: a healthy baby or a boy baby?" My Hindi is no where near fluent, but I understood when the women answered "Ohh! Larika, Larika! Beto!!" For those of you with less Hindi, that's "Boy! Boy! Sons!" This was coupled with some chuckling and emphatic gestures.

It's no secret to me that there is a generation of missing girls in India, where demographics are drastically skewed for male children. But, this is the first time that I have sat in a group of women with only women interviewing them that boys have been not only a clear preference, but a seemingly obvious one. Also, being a group interview, with two translators, there was no opportunity for follow up. So I just sat there, knowing that these women would not value having my family (2 daughters) or my host family (2 daughters) or many other families that I know.  

So we talked more about village life (the water is polluted and salinated and they get diarrhea from drinking it but have no alternative), and then walked around for a bit. I made more lady friends aged roughly 8 - 12, and now avoiding the question of favorites (which girls don't have), I asked if my new friends went to school. Only one answered, and it was a No. When I asked why, she said, My parents don't send me. And why I asked "Why?" again, she wouldn't answer.

So then we played on the sand dunes, and then I left.