COCOEDECON

COCOEDECON brought into view the core of humanity, where women, men and children fight the daily battles of poverty, water shortage, malnutrition, and patriarchy, and, with the help of the inspiring NGO, come out with community-driven smiles and conviction. Too often in my travels have I seen NGOs powered by individuals with the selfish desire for selfless action. COCOEDCON rids pretense from the equation, not only focusing on the needs of one issue, but on any issue at the forefront of human well-being in Rajasthan.
COCOEDECON spans environmental issues such as climate change, agriculture, and water harvesting, while maintaining the perceptivity to realize these issues are connected to community health, malnutrition and finance. The revolutionary NGO has the boldness to challenge the paradigms of patriarchy while questioning the dominant paradigms of feminism. COCOEDECON’s definition of gender justice, as conveyed by program coordinator, Ritu, in a squeaky, but forceful and resonating tone: “If one wheel is bigger and one is smaller how can you keep the car on the road?” The NGO does not assume that historical patriarchies are the reason for today’s problems, but rather that equality – two wheels the same size – is the answer. Men, as well as women, shined in the organizations programs of social and gender justice.

In terms of structure, COCOEDECON engages an incredibly wide geographical area with a comparatively small staff. Just 150 employees in nine offices across the deserts of Rajasthan engage in hundreds of social and environmental justice projects. This is possible due to a focus on community empowerment instead of institutionalized progress. By listening and understanding the needs of communities, the NGO facilitates problem solving instead of trying to impose or control projects. The idea is independent, sustainable social justice, not falsely enforced justice as so many NGOs and governments weakly attempt.



Going into the details of COCOEDECON’s programs for community health (i.e. family planning, malnourishment, maternity health), would breach the boundaries of this post. But that just goes to show the span and gravity of this admirable organization. When asked about problems the village faces, Kalyan Mal Kissan, head of the Village Development Council, with the rapturous voice of a true leader responded, “We used to have problems. Now there are few.” He attests this progress to the work of COCOEDECON. One problem he did note was that schools in his village only go up to standard 10, so students have to leave the village to get up to standard 12 for the opportunity of higher education. If I were a gambling man, I’d bet on COCOEDECON formulating plan to remedy this issue.
This is by no means the full overview COCOEDEON deserves, but it would take full-scale academic projects to fully explicate its tremendous accomplishments and projects. The only critique I can offer, and the NGO’s workers and administrators agree, is of the corporate funding of the program. PepsiCo and Tata are two major contributors. As Dr. Jayman is quick to point out, the only reason these donations are made is a small condolence to the vast problems of neoliberalism. According to Jayman, the problems being solved are product of, and perpetuated by neoliberal policies and opportunistic multinationals, such as Pepsi and Tata
As an anti-corporate and generally anti-neoliberal mind I tend to agree with such claims. But finding the direct connection between Tata, Pepsi, and these people isn’t exactly clear. These companies have contributed to substantial economic growth, which creates funding for such contributions. Though I would prefer to see these companies regulated by governments and taxed to hell, how can we blame neoliberalism (Dr. Jayman is going to kill me) when multinationals are funding projects as revolutionary and admirable as COEDECONS?
Grassroots, social activism is the answer to the problems of modernity. CECOEDECON, despite being funded by the parasites of globalization, is quite possibly the most genuine and productive organization of its type. If Pepsi and Tata support organizations like COCOEDECON, the corporations may just meet their end, or at least their match; people, not corporations and co-opted governments, will once again be the speakers of justice and sustainability. Maybe, just maybe, neoliberalism, globalization and modernity, will fold upon the will of people empowered by organizations such as COCOEDECON. The NGO fired in me not a Leninist inspiration, but Lennonist one. So Dr. Jayman, you may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one.

NGOs and Villages

In the North of India, at the footsteps of Himalaya, but also to the South of Delhi in Jaipur (the capital city of the state Rajasthan) we visited villages and towns which main source of income is agriculture. Surroundings of Jaipur have serious problems with the lack of water what affects crops, but also creates many social issues and accelerates poverty. People who live there are poor, yet they do not give up, and thanks to the aid of humanitarian NGOs (non-governmental organization) which is supported by farmers’ hard work - they try to improve their own fate. Especially extraordinary are women from those villages who want to break the old and patriarchal cycle of oppression, and thanks to the micro-loans they open their small workshops where they manufacture clothes and process food. This is a very good message about the Indian countryside that was till now known  only from its decay caused by the mass suicides of farmers, the displacement of farmers, and the land seizure in favor of industry or dams construction. Thanks to the work of such NGOs as CECOEDECON and Navdanya the future of Indian farmers can be different.

  CECOEDECON (Center for Community Economics and Development Consultants Society) was established as a response to the flood that in 1981 tremendously affected Jaipur’s surroundings and destroyed many villages and towns in Rajasthan. Later, CECOEDECON moved to its mission of educating farmers about the self-organizing and started to provide them with micro-loans, as well as systems of water-harvesting that became a great solution to the daily lack of water in the region (which is half-deserted). Today, they also help street children and promote campaigns against the global warming; each year CECOEDECON participates in the United Nations Climate Change Conferences.

  During our stay there, the volunteers of CECOEDECON who are not afraid of challenges and have great contact with the locals proved that the motto of their organization: “Where actions speak louder than words,” is not taken for granted. We could see those actions in every place we were visiting where each social group, each age, each gender is positively affected and transformed. It is sometimes very hard to believe that this change originate from a micro-loan that for us is an equivalent to a cinema ticket; yet for them means equality, development, and sustainability. It was the first time since long time, where I have seen an organization and people who “believe in the beauty of their dreams,” and who can change their local world, and by this little bit also change the global world.

  In the opposite to CECOEDECON, Navdanya which has its head-quarter at the footsteps of Himalaya takes care of only one – yet very important issue – the preservation of seeds. Navdanya established so called “seed banks” that preserve seeds use in agriculture, and those that for decades have been forgotten and now thanks to Navdanya are restituted to the common use. In 16 chapters of Navdanya that operate all over India, farmers can borrow seeds, grow them, and return back to the bank their surplus after the growing season. Why is this so important? In the last years, all over the world we observe a decrease in biodiversity in agriculture due to our activity - especially due to industrial farming, use of genetically modified food, and food monocultures. If this process will continue, soon we may face a global famine; like one in Ireland in the 19^th century.

   Navdanya was started by one of the most known Indian and global activists – Dr. Vandana Shiva, and is fulfilling its mission by saving seeds, promoting biodiversity, and global activism. They teach farmers how to cultivate their farms ecologically without the need of using non-natural fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals. Education of local farmers, and also people from all over the world that you can meet at Navdanya’s birth place close to Dehradun plays very important role in this organization. Dr. Shiva and Navdanya try to influence also world’s policy makers in order to protect farmers from big corporations and consumers from buying genetically modified food. What is the most important Navdanya gives freedom to farmers, freedom from corporations that try to take out of farmers’ pockets more and more money every year.

  Meeting such organizations as CECOEDECON and Navdanya gave me hope that such literally ‘organic’ work and volunteerism can lead many people to the permanent improvement of their lives; people who used to be marginalized and impoverished. Therefore, I encourage everyone coming to India to escape little bit the tourists’ paths and try to volunteer for a while at one of many India’s NGOs.

Lukasz W. Niparko

Observations From Afar

We in the United States enjoy sitting on our high horse and critiquing other cultures. We give them labels like "developing nations," and make grand statements related purely to economic statistics. There are many countries that lack even the most basic civil rights, largely because our economic corruption has allowed the installation of corporation-friendly government. Yet what we have seen here in India quite simply defies categorization. On the one hand, it is clear that industrialization is still very much in progress, that this country has not had the fifty year head start our own was afforded. Indeed, the U.S. has scored some minor environmental and social victories over the past half-century, yet in many respects we are no more developed than countries like India.

Kerala is obviously the best example of this. While all numbers point towards extreme poverty, on a USD scale, the people on the ground are in many cases more educated and mobilized than that of our own. Almost all sectors of labor are unionized and ready to fight for each other on the socio-political platform. Nearly everyone is educated to a high school level, and everyone understands their role in society and is proud to be from Kerala. The Kerala Model has been proven successful to the extent that it educates and informs the populations, making them valuable members of society. By stressing human development and social justice through a socialist government, Kerala has reduced poverty and leads India in health, education, and crime. This is no small feat from an economic system lambasted for decades by American economists. Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, the Republican party in the state Senate managed to pass a bill outlawing collective bargaining (granted, a judge threw out the bill almost immediately).  Say what you want about economic numbers, but from a social standpoint this has done our country little good. Our poor are getting poorer and our rich are getting richer. We extend tax cuts to the wealthy, give tax breaks to mega-corporations, and destroy local economies because we think that GDP is more important than social well-being.  Have you ever even heard of social capital?

Then there is the environmental movement. The United States is still pumping out 25% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, an astonishing number compared to our 5% of the global population. It is a simple fact that the rest of the world cannot live like us, because then there would be no world left to live on. Yet we continue our abuse of the environment in the name of economics, even turning "green" into a marketing phrase to increase profit. It is easy for us to sit from the top of our global economic mountain and say that we are superior, yet when it comes to the environment we are by far the worst offenders. The most astonishing marks of pollution in India is the rampant littering. Trash literally crowds the streets and the waterways because they don't have the resources to deal with it. Despite the blight on public appearance, it is really no better than dumping waste into landfills. Our elaborate waste management infrastructure allows us to move it all beyond sight, yet it is still sitting there and will be for thousands of years. While there have been limited successes in cleaning up and preserving our environment, rivers like the St. Lawrence are still virtually unusable to local populations that once depended upon them.

What is obvious in India, everywhere that we have been, is how in touch people are with their own personal consumption. It may not be out of a grandiose "environmentalism," as it is in the United States, but rather out of necessity. It is easy at home to blast those who waste more than others, but we all still have neatly manicured lawns and gardens, drive our own personal vehicles to work everyday, and spend the seasons in climate controlled homes. People here are acutely aware of their water, food, and energy use, because there is simply not enough to go around. In hotel rooms, there is a switch that requires the room key in order to turn on any electrical amenities. Every electrical outlet also has a switch turning it on or off. In the U.S., most of our outlets are constantly drawing energy, which not only raises energy costs but also wastes a horrific amount in the pursuit of nothing.

Unfortunately, here in India, global mega-corporations are pushing for more and more influence, using the dollar bill to exert their political will and take power away from the local economies that have developed through thousands of years of civilization. On almost every street their are small storefronts selling local foods, mostly fruits and spices, that we would obtain from a supermarket. There is a noticeable connection between food and place, a connection that has almost completely disappeared in America. If globalisation takes hold here, if industrialized agriculture becomes the standard, then this will evaporate in India just as it has in the States.

In short, the United States is doing almost everything wrong. When we do something right, we hold it up like little kids for the rest of the world to see. Look at us! we say. Look how progressive we are! We follow that up by dumping our waste on countries like India, China, and Mexico and say how "dirty" they are. We have become nothing short of the global bully, posing as a global role model. It is despicable to see the livelihoods of those in India endangered by our ideal of a global economy, when all the global economy does is increase the gaps of wealth between social strata. We view foreign countries through numbers, not on a human scale. The U.S. isn't on the right path either, and should stop resorting to critiquing other nations when we have larger problems building at home. If we can't solve our own issues, as the most powerful nation on the globe, then we are worthless hypocrites, bound to a destiny of pollution that will undoubtedly affect other nations more than it affects our own. And when the globe starts crumbling around us, we will have only ourselves to blame.

Navdanya Food Stall

In anticipation of our upcoming trip to Vandana Shiva’s Navdanya, Shiva’s own organic farm and research center for sustainable agriculture, we visited the Navdanya food stall in Delhi. The stall is located in a food and craft bazaar called Dilli Haat. The bazaar is a clam, clean and eclectic market. It has all the charm of the other markets we have visited, without the shady characters and pushy vendors.
We got to the market just as the sun was setting; all of us longing for a delicious dinner after a hot day of cultural immersion in Delhi. The food stall is nestled away in the back f the bazaar. We walked through the sea of hand made crafts and textiles, only focused on our growling stomachs. As we approached the stand Dr. Sharda Naik (our coordinator for the northern part of our trip, to whom we owe many thanks) greeted us. Sharda informed us that she had ordered us a very special meal. All of the food at the stall is locally grown and completely organic. The food fits with the Navdanya goal of reclaiming the traditional foods of India, using unique local fruits, grains and veggies to prepare a delicious vegetarian feast.
The meal started with two local juices. The first was a spicy mango with cumin and the other was called bheel sharbat, which is a sweet drink made from the local fruit bheel. These two drinks were unlike any I’ve had before; the mango juice was cool and refreshing with a slightly spicy, slightly salty after taste. The bheel sharbat’s gummy texture was thick as it ran down your throat and the drink left a familiar flavor in my mouth that I still can’t identify.
The food was served buffet style on large platters overflowing with an assortment of colorful indigenous foods. There were familiar foods like fried yellow dal and okra and ones that we had yet to encounter like the amaranth and potato cutlets (which get two thumbs up from the entire group). The highlight of the meal for me was the bottle gourd kofta, which consisted of balls of vegetables and paneer in a creamy spicy sauce yellow orange colored sauce. The food truly tasted fresh and each of us had seconds or thirds. Even the roti, which accompanied nearly every meal that we have eaten in India, had a new twist. It was made with nine indigenous grains straight from Navdanya, giving it a rich coco color as opposed to the usual white.
When the meal was over we walked away from the food stall with belts loosened and big smiles on our faces, eager for the chance to see where this delicious food was grown.

A River Runs Through It

Two years ago, the Charles River was officially re-declared safe for swimming. It was a major milestone in the decades long effort to clean up the polluted waterway, marked by a major populist movement within the Boston community that garnered significant support from our state's progressive government. The river used to be the bane of Boston, the "dirty water" we all loved but was truly a result of over-pollution. Yet the restoration of the major waterway, an iconic image of Massachusetts, proves that such clean-ups can indeed be done. It shows that even the most waste filled rivers can be reverted to a point where swimming does not equal hospitalization.

The Yamuna River, that flows through Delhi, is one of these rivers. For decades, sewage and industrial waste have been dumped (and continue to be dumped) into the river with unfortunate enthusiasm. Few living things can survive in the toxic water these days. The proud water used to be the city's provider. It gave fish to eat, water to drink, and a place to bathe. Now it just smells.

If it used to be a symbol of Delhi's beauty and prosperity, the Yamuna has become the symbol of Delhi's growing pollution. Larger than that, it is a symbol of what India has become. A haze lingers over the country, engulfing sunsets. The dank odors of the street soak in the hot sun and overwhelm the nostrils. Delhi contains some of the greatest architecture on the globe, from is Mughal monuments to its Hindu and Sikh temples and mosques. Yet the pollution has the ability to transcend that beauty and take over the senses.

This evening we attended a "discussion" of a book by Sarandha Jain, titled In Search of the Yamuna: Reflections of a River Lost. We sat in an air conditioned room and listened to respected Delhi intellectuals discuss what could be done to solve the problem facing the Yamuna. What struck me most was Sarandha's comment that a restored belief in the community and beauty of nature was the answer. What angered me was the stubborn resistance of these so-called intellectuals to believe it.

"To save nature we need to know it personally," she said.

There is an undeniable truth in this, and in this undeniable truth lies what I believe to be the answer: education. It seemed to me, listening to the stuffy men around the room talk in their loud pessimistic voices, that the problem at heart was not modernity but rather the loss of a once powerful connection. Sarandha used the native tribe's spiritual connection to the river as the answer to save it. Yet I'm not sure spiritualism is necessary to save the Yamuna. It's logic. A river can provide us with everything. In much of our own country, rivers have become a primary source of food, water, and power. Without the Colorado the west coast would not exist. The U.S. treated our own rivers much the same during industrialization, and many of them are still heavily polluted with industrial waste. But, with enough effort and resources, a clean up has been proven possible. Yet, in a country focused more on catching up with the first world, is this ever possible? While it happened in Boston, a perfect representation of what "first world" has come to mean, can it happen in a place without certain post-industrial luxuries?

That is why education is the key. Not just in India, but in the United States and the rest of the world too. Humans have an incredible ability to learn and a curiosity that can never be satisfied. If we stimulate an interest in the environment, in community, if we foster it from a young age, than society will change with the new generation. We need to know nature personally, we need to understand the world that we live in beyond how to use it as a tool. The only way to teach this ideal is to preach it in schools, to show the youngest how vital each component of our biosphere is. Right now this level of education exists nowhere, not even in our own country, and yet it is so simple, so possible that it gives me migraines. I have been lucky enough to grow up surrounded by nature in varying degrees. And yet, whether the jungle be a lush green or concrete, there is beauty everywhere waiting to be discovered. We just have to open our eyes, and be willing to share. Community is a wonderful thing.

Just Before Bed

The river formed, from the Himalayan north,

heads south towards Delhi; the polluted and populated fork

where tribals pull, and others bathe,

but through no pleasure will the rivers be saved.

Where rain fell, cooled and froze,

It's now neglected and pulled in loads.

Its shores have sunk and its quality reduced,

and taken to areas to be introduced.

The answer is personal and completely ours,

not for the government to flex its powers.

Natural ecology is left at bay,

while those who understand have no say.

Is waste the real issue that creates the stink?

Or is it inherent in the way we think.

For the river is alive, sleeps and breathes,

and humans can control when the river leaves.

Will the river exist when our generation passes,

or will future eyes be jaded with toxic gases.

Gases from waste that historically were not so,

instead it was used to make life grow.

From the earth of the garden,

to our plants and our mouths,

organic waste was never blamed for drought.

Thinking of solutions that are biotic in essence,

are as simple as life in its most simple presence.

- Mr. Johnson

The Market: take two

            Another day in India. Again it was our first day in a new place this time Delhi. Our group had a free afternoon, so two students and I went out into the city. Our first stop was the post office. I am an avid postcard writer and had a few to mail. Finding the post office was an adventure in itself. We asked where it was before we left. We were told it was easy to get there from the hotel: just a left out of the hotel down the street and then around a traffic circle. We started walking and asked two men just to make sure we are going in the right direction and they pointed straight ahead building our confidence. Then a man in an auto pulled up, asking us where we wanted to go. Auto is the local word for a small open air taxi that seats about four people beside the driver. He was trying to get us into his auto. One student told him we were going to the post office. “The post office? You’re going the wrong way!” He then pointed in the opposite direction from where we were going and said, “The post office is that way!” Skeptically I tried to get our group to leave. The young man picked up on my attitude and changed his tune a bit, saying that there were in fact two post offices, but that I could only send mail out at one. Not taking the man’s advice we walked away towards the post office we originally set of to. The post office was on the other side of a traffic circle form where we were standing and on our trip around it the little yellow auto of our new friend came puttering up in back of us. The man called out, “The post office is that way” and pointed to the one we had been trying to go to the whole time. He drove off past us leaving just the fumes from his diesel engine.

            We reached the back end of the post office, which was not even a post office but another public building attached to it. We followed little wooden signs around the building to the real entrance; like a scavenger hunt. At the front of the building there was a big orange sign saying post office and a big entrance next to it that was completely closed off. We kept walking past it and there was a little wooden sign that said, “Post office this way,” with an arrow pointing into a gate where there was a stair way and a single door. The whole thing reminded me of a back ally way and I was not excited to go in, but the boys went first and I followed along behind; and there was indeed a post office. I went to the first counter I saw to get stamps. The woman did not really understand me. Finally I put my postcards on the counter and said, “I need to get these to America, how do I do that?” She got me some stamps, 15 rp each. They were the kind you had to lick, which I had not seen since I was a child so I got excited by them. I touched my tongue to the back recognizing the indescribably strange feel and taste of a stamp. That is something that does not change from country to country. After I was done I asked the woman what to do. She replied that I had to bring them to counter four. Which was the counter right next door to where I was. But no one was there. While standing at counter four I looked at the woman with a confused look. She walked all the way over, pulled out a stamp pad and stamped each of my post cards with a purple stamp. I asked her if it was all set and she said yes. She was completely stoic the entire time.

            From the post office we followed the arrows on the big street signs to Connaught Place where there is a market. The signs were sparse and we passed many traffic circles. I was worried about going in the right direction. I saw two young women on the sidewalk and asked them if we were going in the right direction. They responded that we were and said they were going in the same direction and would walk with us. We asked them a lot of questions: they were both Delhi natives, going to college and 21 just like me.  They stopped at a street with a market near Connaught Place. They told us it was a people’s market and that everything was very inexpensive there. Then they pointed further down the road and said the other market was there but explained it was more western. They waved good-bye to us and left us there.

            We looked over and realized that we were in front of a music shop. In the front window were guitars and sitars; it was a nice East meets West feel. The whole store was starch white. There was a black piano in the middle of the room up on a red velvet pedestal. We gravitated to the sitar section where a beautiful sales girl told us about the instrument and offered to play for us. Naturally we accepted. She sat on a piano bench and two men came up with chairs for us. We watched her play. I was personally mesmerized by it. The instrument, the way it was played and the sounds it made were so foreign to me and so interesting. To me the sitars looked so out of place next to the Western instruments; so interesting so unique. Yet it was still commoditized just the same as the other instruments there.

            After the music shop we entered the market. This was the market experience I had been looking for. It was nothing like the market in Kerala; it was crowded, it was noisy, and it even smelled. I know that these are typically the attributes that would turn one off from a market but I wanted it all; I wanted the experience. I dove right in, stopping everywhere to the dismay of the two guys with me. There was a whole variety of clothing. Plain men’s whit short-sleeve dress shirts, which are common in India. Men’s drawstring shorts and pants made with plaid cloth. A booth selling loose fitting drawstring skirts and salwar kameez tops. Others were selling loose fitting dresses with bright patters and v-necks, something not very Indian. There were also booths devoted to sunglasses, jewelry, and brasswork. I stopped to look at everything and put the bright interesting clothing up to my body then turned and asked them what they thought. Surprisingly they answered!

            I let the people at the shops tempt me in. They would always start at something crazy like 1,000 rp for every item and I would use my shocked face and the words, “No way! That’s too much,” would exit my lips. They would get quiet and say, “Okay, make a price make a price.” To which I would respond, “100 rp!” To which the reply was always shock and a, “No no no!” The game was always the same, I was always in control, I always got the price I wanted. Most items could be brought down to between 150 and 500 depending on the actually worth. I knew that I could get the prices lower but felt better giving them more money for their items. When you look at the conversion that is $3.50 to  $11 which makes everything bought a good deal.

            Not all the people had their own stalls, some walked around, following people. One man caught us as we entered; we called him the elephant man. He targeted one of the guys, I still have no clue why. Maybe he looked more like a tourist than the rest of us. But this man was right; the one he targeted is a sucker for statues, which is what the man was selling. He had wooden statues with black varnish on them. Two were Indian; one was the god Ganesh, the son of Shiva. Ganesh was the son of Shiva, birthed in secret by his partner Parvati. When Shiva discovered him he cut off his head. Ganesh was given the head of an elephant in replacement. Another statue was of the Buddha, Siddhartha Govinda.  The other two were Chinese. One was of a Chinese fishing boat and the second a Chinese version of Buddha, where he is depicted as a very fat jolly man. I asked the man why he had Chinese figurines as well and was given no answer. I assumed they had actually been made in China.

            The man followed us as we made our way through till finally our friend got one; a Ganesh. The man did not stop there, he decided I was going to get one next. Eventually this man attracted more men trying to sell us things. One man with wallets another with pipes and a third with postcards. Now this is the trick of markets, just say no and walk away. By the time we had walked the length of the market and back all of the 900 rp prices had fallen to 100 rp  and we were fine with buying them. But the elephant man was persistent. Most of the men following us fell away as we reached the ends of the market; but not him. This man followed us around the corner till one of the guys turned around and told him to stop bugging us.