Coimbatore - January 9th

Tech update: I am currently working on a Dell w/ a LG flatscreen monitor.

The sights that I have seen since arriving in Coimbatore have blown me away. The first day had the most impact. We met with an NGO, Shanti Ashram that helps women to form self-help groups with the goals of developing skills, confidence and the ability to earn a permanent income. We have heard from many leaders and speakers throughout our days that 90% of the women in the workforce are in the unorganized sector, where there are no benefits, no guarantees for work, no regulations, no assistance etc. These SHG helps the women who might be working dangerous, laboring jobs to developing something much more sustainable. For example, we saw a SHG that taught very young children of the poor rural village community lessons in a small schoolhouse. We then saw a SHG that ran a distribution center for the poor. Thirdly, we saw two women from a SHG who learned the skills required to produce bio-fertilizer and use marketing skills to sell it. We also saw a SHG of 15 women who work in a middle-school canteen selling healthy-snacks for their living. And finally we met with several women from a SHG that developed a pay-for-parking collection outside of the well-known Perur Temple and increased the temple’s revenues by 10%.

All of these women are making more income than their husbands. The men work as laborers and do not seek skills to move higher, while the women are realizing that they cannot survive on their husband’s income alone and use creative ways to earn an income, like the women that we saw from Shanti Ashram. One professor that we heard speak related this story. She had asked a man how he felt about his wife working. He said it was fine, as long as he earned the equivalent of 1 and she earned .75. The professor was shocked and asked him what it totaled. He said 1.75, of course. She responded with, what if your wife earned 2.25? What does that equal? He responded with 2.25, but that he doesn’t ever want his wife to earn more than him. When she asked which income would be better, 1.75 or 2.25 he didn’t want to answer anymore of his questions. The story tells that women can certainly add significantly to their household income, but it is hard for the women to find suitable work, and then once she has, for the husband to accept this.

I am very impressed by all of the women that I have seen throughout my time in Coimbatore; the women in the villages, the women in the temples, the SHG members, the children, the professors, the students, the shopkeepers. Everyone that I have met has struggled to find their place, and then again struggles to secure it.

P.S. I am wearing a creamsicle colored dress-pantsuit thingy with red bangles and a rose in my hair. I just played hand ball with a bunch of MBA students and I fell in a ditch head first. We then were served a full meal by hotel management students. We leave for Hyderbad in a few hours.