Agra3By Kate Wallace, 1/21/2015. I just finished wiping cake off my face but it was totally worth it. What an amazing day. I got to with Kristin from Sew New Futures to the centre and meet the girls and learn more about their work there. It was a really eye opening experience. I learned a lot and it was interesting to be able to put faces and a place to the things I’ve been learning about. In case you missed my last blog post, Sew New Futures works with girls who have been put into child marriages and are then forced into prostitution to support their families. They teach them how to sew so they can then sell their wares in New York and give the money back to the women.

Getting there was interesting, it was my first time transferring on the subway but I managed that ok (and felt pretty good about it). I met Kristin and we took a bus together to get to the village. This part was interesting. It was very bumpy and everyone kept staring at us, but not in a threatening way, they just seemed curious about what we were doing. People offered us directions and were very concerned that we made it there safely. Kristin speaks some Hindi and completely understands it so she was able to communicate to them that we were fine. Then it came time to get off the bus. Apparently they don’t stop, they just sort of slow down and you have to jump off. I was first and Kristin was yelling “go! go!” before we missed our chance. I’m not used to the driving on the other side of the road (or rather everyone driving everywhere on the road) and when I finally leaped and all I could think was “damn should have looked left” because I was checking the wrong side for cars. Sure enough I almost got hit by a motorcycle but oh well, everyone made it out alive.

Kristin showed me into the centre and I sat down with a group of young girls. I first thought these were the women’s children, and then I realized these were the women. It was crazy to me to see girls younger than me who I know have either been in prostitution or narrowly escaped it (for the time being). These girls were so small and young and yet already have husbands and children. Most of them were younger than me. They all introduced themselves and said something they like (Kristin translated, all of them said they love the sewing), and then they asked me my name and what I like. They misunderstood me when I said my name and now think my name is “Cake.”

We saw the sewing room where the girls sit in a circle and work either on their training or pieces to be send to New York to be sold. Kristin tells me it’s hard because right now as a group their skill level isn’t up to the level it needs to be in order to sell pieces at stores. The girls are working hard though and clearly enjoy it. Although they are working on their pieces they are all chatting and laughing and teasing each other. Kristin translated for me and said they were talking about cute boys, love and bollywood. Teenage girls really are the same everywhere.

It was one of the girl’s birthdays so we had a cake and sang her happy birthday. They took the cake and smeared it on the birthday girl’s face, Kristin’s face and my face. There was bollywood music playing and all the girls were dancing, and one of them took my hand to bring me to dance with them. I awkwardly started doing my moves that resemble a dad a bbq, and they said “dance dance!” and I said “I am!” and they all looked at me like “that’s not dancing.” These girls and their children could really dance, it was cool to see.

There was a little school with informal education in the centre for the girls children. They are looking to improve on this but said education doesn’t take priority at all for these families because they work to eat. One of the teachers said she was getting married, she’s 22 which is very old to be getting married in that village. Kristin asked her if it was a good thing and she made a disgusted face and then said “yes,” but she clearly didn’t mean it.

On the long subway ride home Kristin and I spoke about how kids could get access to resources to help them get out of an unfortunate situation. Kristin said that one of the girls I met is regularly brutally beaten by her husband and is always covered in bruises. She was a prostitute before Sew New Futures which was a lot for me to process since I think she is younger than me. She was so small. She is very mentally slow and it was hard for her but she eventually sat one of the program directors down and said she can’t handle living like this anymore because her husband hurts her so often. The director explained that to get removed from the situation she needs to lodge a formal complaint with the police, and she agreed. The Director made the call but the girl got scared and backed out. Kristin said it’s because they only associate bad things with the police and government programs, and this life is the only life they know. To have to move is a scary prospect even if it may or may not lead to a better future.

We started talking about childbirth in the village. The women don’t have access to birth control, and so they just keep having kids. In the cases of the women not at Sew New Futures the kids can either be from their husbands or their clients. Kristin says if you want people to show up at an event just have food or condoms. The condoms part blew my mind because that seems like such an easy fix, female birth control is complicated in situations like this but condoms should be easily accessible. The women have so many kids and live in poverty, they can’t support their kids and afford basic necessities like food. In one instance one of the mothers had a baby and the baby got a fever and died, and the mother was sort of relieved because it was one less mouth to feed.

Hospitals are very far from the village, but in one case a woman had a sick baby girl and Kristin and the other program director convinced them to go to the hospital and took them there. They waited for over a day in the waiting room, the doctors weren’t seeing them. Kristin had to go to her other job, and when she came back they were still in the waiting room and the baby girl had died. She started yelling at the doctors and they said “sorry if we knew you were with a foreigner we would have seen you sooner.” The doctors were reluctant to help them because they were clearly from the Perna caste. This caste is marginalized and thus can’t receive access to basic human needs such as healthcare the way other Indians could. Kristin said the doctors  and hospital staff were so rude to them, making fun of their clothes and the way they spoke. It’s interesting because so many people have said the caste system doesn’t matter, and yet again and again I have heard it come up as a relevant thing in Indian society today.

All in all today was a big learning day. I feel pretty emotionally exhausted but am so happy to have had the opportunity and feel very inspired for my design project. Kristin has agreed to partner with me on it and I think having their support will really enhance my work.