Karmika - Woman Empowerment (Mason Trainer series - 2)

Karm + ika = Woman worker {Etmy. (Karm = Hindi for Work + ika = suffix making reference to feminine)}

Women empowerment is a big and concerning issue, and recently someone floundered with a recent book, think it was a recent NY Times review, titled “Are Islam and Feminism compatible?” Well, I support the issue of empowerment of women in workplaces, but 'feminism' is a little tougher to understand. Maybe, because I am not a woman myself. Tough, was also to interpret the flood of write ups such as top 100 women achievers, interviews with prominent achievers, columnists, celebrities sexy, which followed 33% reservation, almost certain, of women seats in the Indian Upper parliament- now to make rounds in the lower house.

Perhaps, somewhat related to this sometime back, and more focused on my artisans in the construction sector, that on recommendation and curiousness I went to visit the office of Karmika; an offshoot of SEWA which works with enabling and assisting womenfolk in construction work. Karmika also conducts its own Trainings and runs other programmes, through an established training centre it has in Bopal, Ahmedabad (City is the seventh largest city in India) - till now, numbers in thousands have been trained here in one level or the another. And why not, when their corporate office is at an easy distance from mine! Quite approachable and tradition loving people, I could easily get access to their chief, Smt. Bijal Bane (Smt. is an Indian prefix and Bane a Gujarati suffix for adding respect to names). After I said I came to visit her because of Karmika's good work in our field, and would like to know more, she in all humbleness gave me her space and her time to talk. We talked for some good hours.

I recall, our talk focused on the role of women in construction - how good and bad they are doing - current dynamics. I also came to know, how the traditional apprenticeship culture has not been traditionally supportive of normal women who do normal work. And currently the culture is left pretty much to improvidence. The course of our talk went on, and the role of big time governments and big sized corporates came in the picture too. Upper level women, great women achievers - leaders, etc.

PolisWala and Sahib

We both were intoxicated. It was the vapor around. While, I got high on thoughts of righting a blog, he continued to scrape sandpaper on the furniture he was going to shine-polis for me. Sunil is a freelance polis-wala who will charge you exorbitant money if you are not careful. Rupees 2200 is all he asked for a one and a half day job he completed with his assistant.

In addition to his rightful labor, the cost of two chemicals which means the thinner and the polishing chemical, a nitrocellulose based material locally manufactured in the local industrial areas, and other contingencies could not be more than half of what he asked me earlier for. Thankfully, protective gloves, boots or masks don’t figure in the picture.

The locally industrial areas manufactured vapor producing half litre nitrocellulose tin box shows a badly designed cross ‘X’ with ‘HARMFUL’ written next to it. Think the brand is called Taralac. Perhaps, this all was the information that the box gave. I got reminded of COSHH I learnt about in the UK, and how the gov’ment regulates the use of such harmful substances, so I felt pity for Sunil and asked him if he knows the job he does, and if it is bad for his health. He replies in a pitiful and a draggy tone about how he has been doing this work for last sixteen years and has always felt intoxicated while doing it. His eyes rolled unsure why we are talking this as he continued to polish the table leg.

And I think to myself- wow what a nice rare job he does because it gives him a high he doesn’t mind.

Sunil tells me of burning sensation in his hands sometimes because many a times the chemical is harder than usual. Sometimes his eyes get yellowy. Then he tells me the importance of studying and teaching his chillen well in a nice ambitious city like Ahmedabad. He is hopeful and starts to put a pitying tone to extract that extra money.

The Sounds of Silence (when constructing)

‘Ahmedabad’ city, has been misspelled in the Indian census, therefore Google has it as ‘Ahmadabad’. Otherwise, affectionately known as ‘Amdavad’ I would like to give it a mod name - ‘A-bad’. Perhaps post Gandhi scene which quintessentially starts from here, the city is recently experiencing a greater migration wave, with immigrants from the rest of the country finding relatively better opportunities cum prosperity here.

Within the midst of overpowering apartments, the new part of the city has some bunglo’s too.

Nice sun is shining even though it is winter – the rich bunglo’ owner and his equally rich neighbor are basking under its shade, only to be separated by a compound wall. A contractor, who perhaps aspires to be similarly affluent, has his elbow resting on the compound wall, as he is talking to one of the owners. He attempts speaking in style, efforts to dress presentable, and is nodding to everything possible or impossible which probably the owner wants. A bathroom he has been contracted to redo. He gives further employment to his subcontractor, who in turn would get a band of laborers - normally from his own village - in popular culture known as – ‘gang of labourers’ - to work under the same shining sun.

The construction work would go on. The gang making merciless noises by randomly banging and ringing their hammers for the whole day, persistently and patiently, taking a month to redo the bathroom. While the skilled gets 250 rupees for a day, the unskilled gets 110 - they both get kayami-work (Gujarati for ‘longer-term work’; pronounced Kuh-aya-me). The subcontractor from their own village makes a little more, and the main contractor we were earlier talking about some real good. Maybe it makes sense, because he is an unsaid bathroom design consultant too.

The image here shows the exterior of the bathroom they would deliver in the end. Yes, this is the finished product. Presently, there is a graphic appeal to it, but the neighbor isn’t amused. He dare not comment to his uncaring neighbor about the bad alignment of windows, and quality that is left. Commenting - which will make him endure the same sounds of construction once again.

Wonder Grass

One can see how the endless possibilities ‘Wonder Grass’ is making possible with Bamboo. Starting from - churning expressive and creative ideas to executing them on site. As well as regularly rolling out posts on their Blog-Page. Scrolling lower and deeper into the pages gets exciting if one gives the posts some duly deserved time.

Whether it is a high-end expression or an earthy thing out of bamboo to design, Wondergrass’s outreach programmes for masons artisans, and school kids, undoubtedly gives it more substance. Its kind hearted founder, Vaibhav Kaale, a friend perpetual, has a habit of simplifying things for his local audience. I over-heard once, in one presentation he gave, he would metaphor his ‘bamboo addiction’ to that of a ‘child’s crave for a chocolate’. I do not disagree, for a weed sure is to give that high.

Keep up the good work.

Surfaces that work

In many urban spaces of the country, male children are happy when the road surface in front of their house or in near vicinity has been laid nicely. They have a practice pitch on, and many will have memories associated with it after they have grown older. Good work, local contractor and municipal engineer. The children, male ones, thank you.

All fine, but, read the link why I’ve always been asserting why cricketers and politicians have nothing to do with building the country. Ok Ok, baba, this is how things are, and this is how we work out an issue in the country. Let time and money sort it out.

Some fans agree preparing a cricket pitch is an art and needs some technical inputs too. In addition to what’s visible on the surface, i.e. its planar length and width, the depth and quality of material used in making this pitch has to follow some basic standards, and some technical requirements?

A very appropriate tweeter tweet I found today through a hilarious post on India Uncut. The Prem Panicker tweet reads as

Strange: so NDT’s bedroom antics bother us. But not the corruption? Strange sense of priorities.

On similar lines:
Area of One cricket pitch at Firojshah kotla = 61.3160064 m2
Approximate area of road network in India = 10,000,000,000 m2

Rightly said - "Strange sense of priorities".

Bridge collapse – River Chambal

Place: Kota, Rajasthan, India.
Project Cost: Around Fifty Million USD.

Forty or forty-five believed dead is not about dying, it is actually about collectively dying - on the foredrop excuse of building the country. Something to be proud of? Or, something to honor? Of course these events will continue to happen when you put cricketers to build buildings.

For the comparative pictures here, sorry dear cricketers, it is understandable you are only entertainers. There are others - including professionals like us, to blame for apathy to the concept of safety at sites.

The victims, famously known in the country as labourers, are again from all over India - especially UP, WB and Bihar etc.

the Me, the Farmer, and the Stone Mason

South of Pune in Western India is a spot on the Deccan Plateau – also a geomorphological name for this basalt-rock dominant region. An urban visitor here obviously would enjoy the unique landscape in its rural surrounds, and perhaps also the Reinforced Concrete cum Brick buildings which mostly in last ten to twenty years has started to densely dominate this landscape - considered an indicator of development by many.

One local farmer who also has worked his way out of the fading drought in these last few decades, is economically more secure now, and now plans to build his new house with this new composite system, i.e. cement, steel and bricks. When I asked him, “When you have so much of stone around and earlier you used to build beautifully styled houses with this stone, why would you need this kind of steel-cement-brick-stone combination house?”. He had replied, “But where on earth do you get a stone mason nowadays!” - With perhaps a mix of sarcasm and irritation on his face. Sarcasm - because, he must have been wondering why stylish looking city people like me would so easily recommend an old way house to a villager folk. Irritation – obviously, because of the unavailability of the Stone Mason -who is now a Modern Mason. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have minded a beautifuller house?

Now, like many enlightened urban and a built environment professional if I wonder about quality, safety and sustainability of these houses, which are homes, I also wonder what avenues exist to empower and inform this villager and this most important guy, the mason. Doesn’t the system needs to resource its development in this direction too rather than the constant bureaucratic old schemes such as Reverend XYZ Awaas Yojna (Free or subsidized housing schemes for the poor)?