A Great Day

Today I attended the National Human Rights Commission conference held in Jaipur. There were over 40 representatives from different states of India though Maharastra (the state where Mumbai is) and Rajasthan (where Jaipur is) were represented the most. My boss brought me to the conference mostly just to take notes- and I tried my best to understand different levels of Hindi flavored English. I learned a ton about different human rights issues in India. Mostly the conference involved different members of the conference giving a short presentation about their specific civil society organization (i.e. ngo's) and asking the NHRC to pay attention to the need that they were bringing up. About half of it was in Hindi, but I still learned much about the prison system, abuse by police, children's education, women's employment, child labour and handicapped discrimination. The most common theme was implementation. India has signed many agreements on human rights and even written excellent policies and programs to help the poor and disadvantaged. But very few of these great programs are actually implemented into the lives of those it's supposed to target. For example every 1 rupee that is spent on educating a certain group (I don't remember) the government takes 7rs to 20rs to implement it. Or for mineworkers, the Mine Act of 1952 states that laborers should have proper safe working conditions, yet they aren't even provided face masks to protect them from deadly silicosis dust. However the representatives and activists did not seem discouraged, the battle worn, and still are actively fighting and winning many battles for the oppressed and underprivileged. I hope I can be so courageous after I am in this for 20 or 30 more years (or in whatever my work works out to be). I really appreciated the environment of mutual respect at the conference. Women had just as much a voice as men, and many times corrected them or spoke over them in arguments, in the way you would see between men. This equality also applied to me to a certain extent. I had several delegates come directly to speak with me to ask with organization I worked for, and then to further elaborate on HEDCON's purpose and mission. While I'm sure they were curious about the one white girl in the room about 10 to 20 years younger than everyone else, they still showed a genuine interest in my work both in Jaipur and my studies back in the United States. I realized that I haven't particularly felt valued or respected for the most part at my work, and it was really nice to feel like I had something to offer and something valuable to contribute. I was also particularly impressed with main chair, who held some position in the NHRC, who is probably one of the best negotiators/leaders I have ever seen. His ability to manage conflict, and to encourage participation while still controlling the flow of conversation was incredibly impressive. Both direct and stern, but appreciative and alert, I could see the respect that he naturally garnered from the room. I was taking notes on him (at least mentally) as much the issues being discussed. I came out of the conference most excited by several connections that I made with several directors of some NGO's in India. I was particularly excited to meet one woman who founded her own NGO, to monitor current government programs and work towards their better implementation, in order to protect and defend children with physical and mental disabilities. I was incredibly disturbed the situation of these kids in Jaipur and asked afterwards if I could come by and visit her organization and possibly volunteer there occasionally over the next few weeks, and she said that she would love that. I need to still contact her and work out the details, and though I'm trying not to get my hopes up, I'm excited to maybe do some hands on work with some of the children in Jaipur.

This evening was also really wonderful. The sky has been so blue and so beautiful for the last couple days. (See pictures below). I took two buses back from the hotel where the conference was held. Along the way, golden evening sunshine lit up the streets, trees and buildings and made this regularly dirty crowded polluted city actually seem rather beautiful. I had forgotten how much sunshine and sunsets light up my soul, and I truly felt lighter in my heart than I have for many weeks. In the evening we went out for dinner and I ordered a California Pizza (I ate two indian  meals today so I can justify having an American one for dinner) and it was delicious. Now it's off to bed, and I can sleep knowing there are stars outside my window. I'm looking forward to seeing the morning sky once again.

So lovely. When I was little I used to imagine God literally with a paint brush in hand decorating the sky. I felt like the sunset last night was painted just to bring me joy.

Fading into greater beauty 

Delegates in the conference

Lit up Jaipur Street

Sky on the way back from the conference. Notice the true blue and sun beams!

A rickshaw refilling at the gas station. India loves uniforms.

View from bedroom balcony

California Pizza

Dinner with the girls. From the left: Me, Winni from Macao, Ahn from Vietnam, Amanda from Canada, Ece from Turkey and QM from China.