Visit to India ....continued

Public Hygiene…
Most Indian households are dusted, swept, and mopped everyday, if not twice a day, yet that cleanliness manifests itself only within the confines of individual homes, or so I guess. In East Delhi and NOIDA, the two parts of the city that I have been in so far, there is trash strewn all around especially on the roadsides and any open piece of square footage. The garbage disposal system, if it can be called such, is strange. I am not sure I want to call it archaic, because the Indus Valley civilization had a sophisticated sewage system and even had flush toilets according to ancient texts. However, today, as I see it, household garbage is taken in small plastic bags from households by a hired help who leaves that bag at the first open space that he finds within walking distance. As a result, on my morning walks the putrefying organic waste emanated an overwhelming stench that was so overpowering and pervasive that I could smell it on my clothes every time I came back into the house. As you may have guessed, the morning walks will have to be discontinued while I am in Delhi. Clearly, public hygiene is not a priority; the dichotomy between the public and the private levels of hygiene still has me baffled!

Child Labor….

Child labor is rampant and practiced blatantly in India. On my way from the airport I saw several road construction projects that had young boys working as laborers which caught my attention. In the course of the last week, I find that the daily wages labor force has a very large percentage of underage workers; in fact the driveway of my residence is swept every morning by a young boy who could not be more than twelve years old. All the rag pickers I have seen so far are young children who are obviously malnourished and or emaciated with scant clothing and usually barefoot. Childhood has clearly been taken hostage by poverty...