I have spent the past few days visiting NGO's in the Delhi and surrounding area. I mostly visit ones concerning the environment and my research, but I spent the morning with a very interesting one yesterday.
Salaam Baalak Trust is an NGO devoted to helping "street children" get off the streets and into homes and school. I was given a tour of the places in Delhi that the street kids frequent and live by a former street child. He is 22 now, and was separated from his brother at the New Delhi Railway station when he was 6. He was living on a bridge above the railway station (where over 1,000 kids live) for almost a year. He fell prey to a local gang and became engaged in pick pocketing, and buying and selling drugs. (The most common drug among the street children is White-Out) Salaam Baalak Trust picks the children off the street and offers them food and shelter, with the option to stay or go home. Most of the children, I learned, are not born on the streets or even abandoned, but runaways. I met many more of the children at their headquarters who had run away from abusive and alcoholic fathers or sexually abusive family members. It was an interesting city walk and an amazing learning experience.
After that, I went to the Center for Science and Environment. They are a large organization working to raise awareness about issues in the environment. I met with the water team over lunch, and they were a plethora of information; many of them study the same things I am interested in. They invited me on a boat trip down the Yamuna River today on a field trip with students in a summer course they are teaching. I tagged along. The river is sickening. I swam in the Ganga last year and had no health issues afterwards (in fact, it healed a cut I had!) However, there is no way anyone could pay me to swim in the Yamuna. Getting in the boat was hard enough. Raw sewage flows into it and the water is literally black. It constantly bubbles from the ammonia in it and our little speed boat had to stop numerous times to untangle the motor from plastic bags and trash. I have never been so sad looking at a body of water, or so disgusted. We floated down past the cremation areas and I realized I was paddling through a huge toilet, as the boat hit not just trash, but sewage and bones of people and animals too. People bathed in it all around us, washed their clothes and made offerings to Her, while I tried my hardest to keep my scarf over my face so not to gag from the stench. The river is long, and only 2% of it flows through Delhi. What is more sickening is that Delhi contributes to 80% of the pollution in the river. From sewage, to industrial areas, to damming, construction on the flood plain, and everyday abuse, the river is considered a dead river. While environmentally she is dead, spiritually, she is very much alive. It is an interesting conundrum and continues to plague the minds and actions of the government, Hindus, scholars, and tourists. Below are some pictures from the boat ride.
Some photos from the Yamuna River in Delhi
Unclogging the motor
Raw sewage flowing directly from Delhi homes and businesses into the river
A man paddles a "dingy" made from waste across the river
Trash lines the banks of the river as the black water constantly bubbles with ammonia from the untreated sewage
Temporary huts line the banks of the river during the summer. The inhabitants practice agriculture during the summer months, but the banks flood and their homes are destroyed during the monsoon season. They return every year.
nice post
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