So exactly a month of my stay in Delhi completes itself. Without a doubt, it was horrible. A few good moments, nevertheless but mostly horrible. My part of the city is at its loathsome best. Anyhow, since i am done cribbing about it copiously to every enthusiast earnest in giving my Delhi life an ear, I'd refrain from the same here. Delhi has been hideous in many ways but had it not been for Delhi, I'd have been forever starved of the amazing perspectives it has bestowed me with. The lesser delved facet of life and people, at least for me. To begin with, the reason for my Delhi stay is my short internship with the Self Employed Women's Association(SEWA) and in particular, their operations in Delhi .Phew!

Wasn't so easy for me initially,I'll admit. Regardless of my ardent willingness to work with them, the field visits to the slums weren't easy. The intolerable filth around, the puddles of foul smelling black water every three steps, excrement and what not! To top it, the completely umplumbed locality. The gawking eyes and the fixated gazes everywhere I went. The unsafe outskirts. Everything completely efficient in discouraging me from walking my way to work the next morning. But somehow i sailed through it for a month and it is now in retrospect that the keenest of lessons learnt from these brief visits strike me. I work for and with women who are Home Based workers. Albeit, such workers produce myriad of artifacts, my association is particularly with the women who weave/stitch/embroider. They embellish fabrics in an attempt to embellish their lives. All kinds of women from 15 to 60 are involved in this work. We at SEWA work towards unionizing them, linking them directly to national/international producers/markets in an attempt to obliterate the role and presence of the contractor/middleman chiefly responsible for their exploitation.We also try and link them to other policies of SEWA that benefit them such as banking and health care,to mention a few. There's much more we do for them(or at least try to!) but I'd let that be. For me to obtain a first-hand grip of things around here, I was exposed to extensive field work. Thus, I had an opportunity to see how their world functions. Much like mine, yet very unlike. Needless to say, what's provided to me almost effortlessly is a struggle for them. To be able to get out of the confines of four walls and work with us was not the first of their struggles but after the boundary was crossed a lot did change in their lives. And ours. For me, it was another standpoint in observing the zest to live life so closely. A set of three sisters who had not much crossed the threshold of their shanty have now taken control over their lives by their new found financial independence. However, the threshold is still uncrossed for some,sadly.

For the rest, it's the vivacity of the laughter as they all weave hope together with their tiny hands is what attaches them to SEWA. The smiles that I come across as I hop around from one worker to another, talking and questioning washes off all that muck that I so whined about. Below what you see are hands of Fareeda, weaving her life with little beads. She does this for a living. With a month spent with workers like her, their spirit is amazingly infectious. And this is not even a fourth of what I saw. There's a lot more to come. In pieces. Operating within the societal constraints and working towards achieving their little piece of freedom, what they do is truly awe-inspiring. And oh, will keep periodically whining about Delhi too!

Picture Courtesy: The SEWA Delhi website(http://sewadelhi.org/)
And here's the SEWA website, just in case: http://www.sewa.org/