So what am I doing here?

So I thought it might be good to talk a bit about specifically why I'm here.

The short story: conducting interviews/groups discussions/case studies with Panchayat officials and villagers to understand the role that the Panchayat can play in achieving "social justice" for Dalit populations in the area.

Now the long story:

Basically, I'm here with an organization called the Foundation for Sustainable Development that connects people state-side with local NGO's in a variety of countries around the globe. While I could have drawn on connections to come here and work on my own, the advantage of FSD is that not only do they get you a job, but they hook you up with a homestay, orientate you, teach you Hindi, help you deal with absolutely any sort of pickle you find yourself in, and give you a network of people to travel with on weekends and such.

I suppose I have slightly mixed feelings at this point about whether going the FSD route was "worth it" given that the program fees were steep (albeit typical for this kind of program). FSD is a highly reputable, extremely well connected organization. I found out about them randomly two years ago and after a rather exhaustive search, determined they were the best for what I was looking for. Coming here with them has been a goal of mine since then (Uganda beckoned last summer, and transferring required my presence on campus the last two semesters). But I was slightly disappointed with orientation and the hindi classes. Yet, the longer I've been here, the moremoremore grateful I've been for the FSD office as a HQ, my awesome homestay family, and having other interns around to hang out and do things with.

It's a sunk cost at this point so "worth it" is a null question, but if you are considering doing something like this in the future, be sure to not only evaluate why you are choosing which organization (which I asked myself a lot), BUT ALSO evaluate what things you are banking on and how you'll handle being let down (which I didn't do as much of). For example, I almost didn't do FSD but after I interviewed with Gabe, the site director, I was a lot more excited about coming here due to his insight and the assurance that he would be around if anything went wrong. The day I got here, he announced he was leaving.

Enough about FSD. What I'm ACTUALLY doing here is working for an NGO called UNNATI. They're a little different from some of the other NGO's in the area, and that's precisely why I picked them. They focus on issues encountered by marginalized populations in the area (Dalits, women) and from this have branched out in two main directions. The first being disaster prevention and relief. Drought is a huge issue in the area (this place makes Arizona look tropical) and logically, it hits the lowest end of the population food chain first and hardest. So yeah, they're doing some projects with food and water access in villages and schools and such.

What they also focus on is local governance. This is where I get all giggly and excited. Understanding the role that an NON-governmental organizations play in governmental issues is well, complicated and fascinating. Basically, UNNATI's take (which I quite like) is to be a knowledge and capacity builder for these governing bodies. UNNATI connects the dots in places where they aren't getting connected, and creates links where they are missing. They don't have some gradiose, overly idealized vision to change the world or completely reorganize society (cough cough, women's empowerment organizations in the area...) and I personally don't think they butt their head in where they don't belong. Because of this, they focus a lot of their attention on researching, rather than activism. This is great because I am VERY MUCH a researcher, and the probably the least activism inclined person I know. I have nothing against it, it just doesn't jive with how I approach issues.

So what am I doing with UNNATI? Well, they've been doing a lot recently with Panchayat officials, ranging from training them on their roles and responsibilities so the Panchayat can function more effectively, to conducting surveys on the social stratifications and their implications of panchayat officials.

This is where I come in.

Rather than look at "issues" (for lack of a better term) within the Panchayat itself, I'm going to be trying to understand the role that the Panchayat can possibly play in addressing "issues" in the villages they represent. The Panchayat is a constitutionally mandating local governing body set up for villages. For villagers, it's their direct link to what's going on in parliament. The Panchayat officials are directly and proportionately elected by the villagers themselves and it operates with incredibly democratic principles. In theory. I don't have a ton of perspective at this point, I've read some things and I've been told a lot of things, but I'm not ready to voice any particular opinion at this point. The underlying assumption of my work though, will be that there is not "equality" for Dalits in their villages and that the Panchayat can somehow be used to address these issues. What the issues are and how they can be addressed, well, that's what I'll be figuring out over the next two months.

So, the work itself will comprise of my going out out out to the villages and conducting interviews with both Upper caste and Dalit officials to get their perspective on these "issues" and how they view the Panchayat functioning in context of them. Then I'll go see what the villagers themselves have to say and see if it's any different. Then I'll conduct a few case studies of instances of "social justice violations" (still deciding how to define that....) and examine how the Panchayat handled it, for better, or for worse. Then I'll take this three pronged fork that I've stabbed into the Panchayat system and plop it in my mouth, chew it up, and see what it tastes like. Ok that was kind of a gross analogy. Basically, I'll analyze the data (oooo analysis.....fun!!!) see what I find out, write up a sleek little (or not so little) report on it, and include some recommendations for how an NGO can make use of these findings and what the next step is. So basically, I'm a researcher, analyst, and consultant all rolled up into one.

Things are a little slow lately, if I can get one hurtle jumped per day, it seems to be a good day. But, I need to start pounding dirt next week and get these interviews under way. The project proposal, report outline, and background research are poised to go, now I just need to get out and GET TO IT!