A changing India

I woke this morning to the sounds of chanting to ancient sanskrit. The peacocks began their morning ritual of calling to each other. The almost daily sounds of a funeral following historical patterns could be heard from one of the nearby villages. This is an ancient culture with long standing traditions. But it is also a culture under seige from the west.

India is thought to be a booming eceonomy - and in the cities the middle and upper classes are doing well. The lower classes are still struggling with many deep in poverty. The minimum wage here is R100 or about $2.23 per day. There are many here who are employed at below that yet there is little they can do about it. I am told that even here in Auroville, a city established to bring a higher level of consciusness, there are people who pay their Amas (household servants really) below the minimum wage. Indeedm servants continue to be the norm with all most westerners and Indians alike.

Consider that the minimum wage went up from R80 after been at that level for abolut 2 years. In the meantime, the cost of things like fruits and vegetables has more than doubled. Inflation is high here although costs are very low on western standards.

Another part of the daily ritual for me is the India Times and the Deccan Chronical whihc are delivered to our table each morning. The latter one in particular features stories of western movie stars, Indian stars and a variety of the "party" class doing their thing in clothing that would be anything but Indian. What is amazing here is the way that the west is colonizng India thruogh the cultural influences that these images, TV, and the internet bring. Yet, for many, particularly in the more rural areas, they are very ill prepared for these changes.

I spoke yesterday with a lady who is trying to get some schools to talk about issues related to abuse. She faces huge obstacles and must be very careful about the language that she uses. Teachers are amongst her strongest opponents. She tells me that boys are more prone to see lack of protection in the larger world (war, environment) whereas girls are more open to talking about what may be going on more personally. I guess some things don't change from one culture to the next.

Abuse is rampant but it is very hard to get the dialogue going and they lack materials in Tamil language that they can use with the children and parents.

This same lady also said that she was trying some gentle sex education. One mother told me that, while she understood what a girl goes through with menstraution and the like, she has no idea how to answer her daughter when she asks such things as what a boy goes through or even if he does.

Thus, we have all these western influences in a culture that really doesn't know what to do with them or even how to talk about them.