Today I walked into the library to find a bunch of women stitching. Preethy, the Community Development Services (CDS) team lead told me that an embroidery class was in progress. Julie Kagti of Knots on Cloth was sending trainers to train these women. This would definitely increase their employability and might increase their incomes as well. Some might even get employed with Julie herself. What a heart warming story!
The natural question that came to my mind was "where are the fathers?". Did they not want better incomes? Turns out that the fathers were either too hard working or good for nothing. The hard working ones were getting paid by the hour and could not take time off for self development. But most were good for nothing, busy drinking away what little they earned and large part of what their wives earned as well.
This is the cycle of poverty. Debts to make ends meet. Alcoholism that pushes them further into debt and distress, putting them in constant state of stress and desperation. In this state, it takes very little to push them over the edge and wreak havoc in their homes. It can range from verbal abuse to more extreme things like setting each other in flames. And one can imagine the effect it has on the children. Thus the cycle continues.
So where does one start, if the cycle is to be broken? Is literacy sufficient? How about helping augment parents earnings through self development courses? Would de-addiction program for fathers help? Would a loving environment at school compensate for what they see at home? Would exposure to role models get them to aspire to be more? Would outlets for the children's energies through many extra-curricular act ivies like art and sport be relevant?
I now start to understand what people at Parikrma mean when they say that their end goal is not to impart education, but that education is a means to break the cycle of poverty. This cyle is more vicious than I can even comprehend. And there is no one thing that will break it. Many of these activities will slowly erode it. No one really knows how much more it will take to truely make it go away.
Training in Aplique work
Originally uploaded by sindhoor
"This is the cycle of poverty. Debts to make ends meet. Alcoholism that pushes them further into debt and distress, putting them in constant state of stress and desperation"
ReplyDeleteMy maid and few of her friends have similar problem. Their husbands do not work, drink all day, beat them up, and debts. However, they're trying to work an extra hour to save some money. They'd like to save it in a saving scheme (like post office savings scheme) for any future needs. I was happy to hear their inclination to save for future.
-SP