by Lesley D. Biswas
-India-

A version of the following article was originally published on October 1, 2010. Despite staggering rates of illness and disease from poor sanitation, mobile phones carry higher status than toilets amongst the poor in India.- Ed.

Among the first things you notice when you come to India is the repelling sight of people defecating in the open. Be it a rural village or the teeming city slums, you see people lined up besides railway tracks, fields, and rivers answering nature’s call.

by Lesley D. Biswas
-India-

On March 24, 2011 India woke up to a chilling headline that read: “Man held for raping his minor daughter.” The victim, a 13-year-old girl from North Delhi allegedly had been raped several times over a period of two years by her own father before she mustered the courage to tell her sister-in-law about the abuse that had him arrested.

by Lesley D. Biswas
-India-

Poverty, illiteracy and gender disparity are engrained in the Indian society. Key indicators of social development such as health and education are below average. The World Bank estimates India is home to 456 million people who live below the poverty line, earning less than $ 1.25 per day. This is equal to 33 percent of the world’s poor population.

by Lesley D. Biswas
-India-

Among the first things you notice when you come to India is the repelling sight of people defecating in the open. Be it a rural village or the teeming city slums, you see people lined up besides railway tracks, fields, and rivers answering nature’s call.

Out of the estimated 2.6 billion people globally who have no access to proper sanitation, 638 million belong to India. According to the UN, more than 55 percent of Indians practice open defecation. Even where local municipalities have constructed public toilets, the UN has questioned the utility of these services, terming them unhygienic and unusable and lacking in running water, drainage, and electricity.

by Lesley D. Biswas
-India-

Anjali Das, an elderly woman, sits in her bright yellow Bou cart at a strategic road crossing in Salt Lake City, Kolkata. She is selling hand packed edibles, spices, jute handicrafts, dry fruit, and colorful dry flowers. She earns a little over $3 a day; yet despite her meager income, she is still smiling.

“Now my husband respects me and I have a say in the family’s decision making process,” says Das, her newfound confidence shining through her weary eyes. Previously Das was dependent on her husband to provide for her and was regularly scorned for being unemployed.

by Lesley D. Biswas
- India -

The annual Bidhannagar Fair at Kolkata’s Central Park is a swarm of enthusiastic children and their parents. Amidst the tangle of toy vendors and the squeaking and jarring sounds of their toys, seven-year-old Khushi picks out a plastic doll. Brightly colored, the doll is Barbie’s clone, the only difference is that it costs a mere INR 30 (0.64 USD). It’s a cheap substitute for the popular brand and it’s dangerously toxic.

by Lesley D. Biswas
- India -

When Mili held her newborn baby girl in her arms she wept, not with joy but with a deep sense of pain and disgust. The child reminded her of the intense physical pain and emotional humiliation her body and soul had been subjected to by her husband. Petite Mili had just delivered her first child when her husband demanded to have another.

“I was not prepared to have a second child and when he told me that he wanted to have a baby to prove to his friends who had challenged him that he would not be a father again, I was terrified. Despite pleading and reasoning he forced me and made me pregnant,” she says tearfully. Although Mili holds this against her husband, it has never crossed her mind to legally penalize him for his crime. “What he did was wrong, but sending him to jail for it would be a bigger sin,” she reasons.

by Lesley D. Biswas
- India -

Situated in the coastal regions of West Bengal and parts of Bangladesh, Sundarbans is the largest deltaic mangrove forest in the world and home to the endangered Royal Bengal Tiger. According to a study conducted by the United Nations, a mere 45cm rise in sea level will submerge over 10,000 square kilometers, or nearly all of the forest.

by Lesley D. Biswas
- India -

Dennis Meredith has two sprawling bungalows on 15 acres of rich fertile country land in McCluskiegunj where he has spent his life nurturing a beautiful garden and orchard. Dennis has lived here since he was just a year old in the house his late father, Felex Meredith christened “The Hermitage.” For the past 59 years, Dennis has never considered leaving, but now a “For Sale” sign hangs over the entrance.

by Lesley D. Biswas
- India -

Commuting along the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass that runs parallel to the Indian city of Kolkata, the huge expanse of the East Kolkata Wetlands is a daily sight for city dwellers, and yet most of us are unaware of the important role this natural habitat plays in our lives. Despite acknowledging the escalation in Kolkata’s urban development, hardly anyone seems to notice how the congestion of the city’s skyline is leading to a loss of habitat for many living in its shadow.

by Lesley D. Biswas
- India -

According to a 2006 National Crime Records Bureau report, 18 women become victims of crime every hour in India. The number of women raped every day has risen to 53 – a nearly 700 percent increase since 1971. India ranked fifth out of 84 countries studied by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in 2006, with 19,000 reported rapes per year. Even though this is far behind the United States, which stands at the top of the ladder with 95,000 reported rapes each year, we ought to treat every single case of rape as inhuman and saddening.

Some women’s groups in India say that fewer than 2 percent of women who have been sexually assaulted in India actually come forward to report the crime, largely because this could undermine a woman’s chances at marriage. These groups also assert that the conservative attitudes of Indian families and the public harassment the victim is put through during questioning in court to prove that she was raped often leads to further social ostracism. Many Indian women would rather suffer in silence than appeal for justice and see the culprit convicted.