Visit to Ranchi YMCA USDP Program

On February 21st, Mr. Sampson, Kat, Tim, and I set off for a 5 day visit to the YMCA of Ranchi. Ranchi is the capital city of the state of Jarkhand, which is west of our state of West Bengal. We boarded an evening train from Calcutta's Howra station and it was quite an experience. We traveled sleeper class, one of the less expensive classes, and unlike the trains in the United States, every seats folds into a flat bunk bed. I must admit, while it is definitely more comfortable then traveling overnight on the U.S. Amtrak, I did not sleep well. However, that is to be expected. Anyways, we arrived around 7am in Ranchi and Mr. Sanga the general secretary of the Ranchi YMCA was eagerly awaiting for us at the station.

Mr. Sanga took us in a Y vehicle to a christian convent/conference center where we were to stay during our visit. We then met with the general secretaries of the Ranchi YMCA and had introductions. The debriefing was quite nice where we were given a very comprehensive and jam packed schedule for our visit and much reading materials about the Ranchi YMCA and their programs. We then headed off to start our first day that showed us the Ranchi's Urban Slum Development Program (USDP).
The USDP was started in 1969 as a means for the Y to better help the community, especially the members of the very poor living in the slums. Today, it serves 11 slums in the city of Ranchi. It gives an emphasis on Children's education with a free mid-day lunch, Health Care, Adult Education, Youth Forum, Construction of Roads, Drainage, Sinking Tube wells, Legal Aid, and people's action group. Presently the Y has adopted 2700 children including 1770 studying in schools of Ranchi City and 300 older youths who study at the University of Ranchi. The USDP has helped 90 slum children to graduate from the University and become gainfully employed. Therefore, our first visit was to the Islam Nagar Children's School.

The Islam Nagar Children's School provides nursery and early education to children of the slums. The teachers teach the children basics, and this classroom was quite nice as it has donated desks and chairs. The free lunch meal is very important for quite a few reasons, first the slum children are often undernourished and this provides at least one satisfactory nutritious meal per day. Many of the people of the slum struggle to be able to have a consistent and steady supply of food, and it is not guaranteed that they will have food everyday. Not only does the food program help keep the children fed, but it insures their participation in the school day. It is often hard to get children in the slums to school as the family needs them for other tasks and sometimes the importance of school is not considered to outweigh the benefits of keeping the child at home. However, a free meal is often enough to get the children into the classroom. After our visit where the children sang songs we headed over to the YMCA's health care center set up right next door.

The Y health care center is a very important asset to the community. Here the people of Islam Nagar and 10 other slums and the general public can receive real medical care at a very nominal expense. While the Health Care center can not afford to give free care, it charges a very low fee. For example, it provides important child vaccinations that run around 500 rupees anywhere else for about 20 rupees. In addition to vaccinations the health care center provides both in and out patient care, health education classes for the community, nursing care, family planning, pre-natal and ante-natal facilities, and mother and child care. It also has 15 beds, and an ambulance. It also organizes free eye clinics, tubectomy, and campaigns against the development of leprosy and tuberculosis which still run rampant in the slums. After our visit to the health care center we went to visit people affected by these very illnesses. First we arrived at the Overbridge Children's School.

The Overbridge Children's school is literally a classroom established under a bridge in a slum. Therefore, it is open aired and consists mainly of a blanket for the children to sit on, and some teaching tools like flash card etc. There is a shanty room built on the side where the cook lives and sleeps to ensure that all the cooking utensils are kept safe. Here like at all the nursery/early education schools the children receive free lunches. Like all the slum YMCA sponsored schools, after a certain age the Y helps to sponsor the enrollment to the children into the various 65 primary schools in the city of Ranaghat. The Y also helps to provide school supplies and uniforms. For the children in the slum school donated clothing is also given. The children at the Overbridge school are very special, and in fact almost all come from the nearby leprosy colony. The children of the leprosy colony do not suffer from the disease themselves, it is their parents whom have the illness. After the children showed us how they could count, we continued on to the leprosy colony.

Many of the people of the colony were out and about busy with their day. This often includes begging, as the life of a leper is very hard. There hands are worn away from the illness and in addition to the physical limitations that come with leprosy there is a stigmatization against people with the illness. For fear of contamination along with their disability they can not get jobs. The people in this colony have been receiving their medication which makes leprosy not contagious if taken properly. However, it is an atrocious illness. Not only is it very painful, but is spreads across your body slowly eating away at limbs and body parts that ooze from decay. While the people we met were severely afflicted with withered body parts, the disease could not capture their smiles as they shown across their faces. These Indians were the most welcoming of the people who live in the slums, with their bright smiles and namastes. The YMCA has helped the colony by providing the children's school, setting up clean water, providing a room for the community to meet as one, helping to fund special events (such as providing the rice for community celebrations) and they are looking into raising funds to help raise the wall around their area a few feet. They are also planning on building a women's bathroom area so they can have privacy from the public. The Y also helps distribute the medicine that is sponsored by the government. We then headed off to see one of the vocational training centers set up in the Grihni slum.

We arrived at a one roomed building, filled with beautiful women and teenage girls and their crafting material. This is a vocational center set up by the YMCA and now with the help of the community is a bit more self-reliant focusing on its own goals. In the morning the room functions as a classroom and in the afternoon a room where the women can learn, sewing, embroidery, fabric painting, typing, and stitching. The programs range from months to about a year and at the end their is a skills test and then a certificate is awarded. This is very important to the women as they will have a means to earn money for their household. Not only does this help bring needed money to the families, but the women do not need to be as dependent on their fathers and husbands for money. The teacher at this particular center is so well known for her skills and teaching ability that women come from very far away just to attend her classes. Her teaching skills must be superb as the hand embroidery work is astounding. The pieces created are so beautiful it is absolutely amazing to see the end products. Some of the women have an undenied talent, and this will hopefully help them find work in the future. Also after graduation the if a women would like to purchase her own sewing machine to start a business the YMCA will pay for half and the women must save up money or take out a loan from their co-op to pay for the other half. I will discuss more about the vocational programs later as we visited ones at the YMCA main center the next day. These women were probably my favorite people of Ranchi as the girls who were our age were so happy to meet us. They gave us flower garlands, sang beautiful songs, and asked us numerous questions about ourselves and the United States. Despite their poverty, they carried themselves with such an uplifting spirit, grace, and beauty.
That evening we had a delicious meal at a wonderful restaurant with all the secretaries from the Ranchi YMCA. Their hospitality is unmatched, and we chatted until late. We returned to the convent and the first day then concluded and I fell fast asleep. The day truly was a roller coaster of sights, experiences, and feelings. The next two days promised to be nothing different.