It’s been a while since I’ve hopscotched my way through the trash-infused mud of SM Krishna Nagar. I recall the gutka wrappers, the piles of feces, the animals running wild, and the whole experience feels so close and so distant at the same time.
During my time in Hubli, I was asked repeatedly, “Can you imagine growing up here? In the slums?” My answer hasn’t changed since the beginning: I can’t. I can’t imagine going to school in a uniform that’s been discolored and tattered from overuse. I can’t imagine having a limited supply of water and not being able to bathe whenever I want. I can’t imagine going to school and not having a desk to work at and a chair to sit on.
Looking back on the project, I often feel proud of our team and the work we accomplished. We provided filters to 55 families, we developed an educational curriculum to increase awareness on proper sanitation practices, and, most importantly, we provided a potential solution to a problem the people had assumed to be out of their control. Then I remember the responses to one of our survey questions: “Why don’t you filter you water?” The overwhelming response was “We’ve always used this water. There is no need to change.”
While we may have raised awareness during the two months we were there, creating behavioral change involves a lot more than strangers coming into the community and declaring that change needs to be made. We hope to address this issue through our education workshops. We hope that the children will take the lessons they learn and relay that information to the rest of their families so that notions of bathing in boiled water being the cure-all and sour bore well water being potable are eliminated.
There is much more to growing up in the slums of SM Krishna Nagar than can be addressed by our project. The trash, the practice of open defecation, and the lack of proper clothing all make it painstakingly obvious that we, at best, nicked the tip of the iceberg.
“Successful people replace the words ‘wish’, ‘should’, and ‘try’ with ‘I Will’. Ineffective people don’t.”
That’s what we tried to do. Unfortunately, we were only able to start what we had planned to be a success. Now it’s up to the people of SM Krishna Nagar to do the same and want to make a change – starting with their water. Once they realize the importance of clean water and proper hygiene, maybe their eyes will open to recognize other arenas with room for change; at which point we’ll hopefully have another plan of action ready.
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