Mumbai, India - I landed in Mumbai amid the newspaper headline, “Monsoon chaos returns to Mumbai, disrupts normal life.” India’s climate, mythology, romantic poetry, literature, Bollywood songs—all bear the influence of the monsoon. Although the country’s infrastructure has developed at a rapid pace since the economic liberalization of the 1990s, it is still inadequate to accommodate the diversity and volume of transportation. The old means of transportation still exist, while new methods have been added. While driving, a turn can take you from a six-lane highway onto a flooded, narrow lane with open sewage inlets in the middle of the road. The mix of ox carts, camels, donkeys, rickshaws, and the latest-model sports cars sharing the roads can be amusing or prove challenging to deal with. And this new jumble and high volume of vehicles has added another dimension to monsoons in India—traffic jams. Read more

Mumbai, India - The moment I walked into the classroom at SUPPORT (Society Undertaking Poor People’s Onus for Rehabilitation), I instantly recognized Dalip’s sparkling eyes and playful grin. I first met him two years ago, in June 2008. Fourteen years old now, he has many alias, including Salman and Akshay, after Bollywood heroes, and he loves to dance to the latest Bollywood tunes. Dalip’s story is similar to those of millions of children living in abject poverty in India, yet in one way his is different—he is on his way to a bright future.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Dalip became addicted to alcohol at an early age. His father, unable to support the family, deserted his mother and married a sex worker. Dalip, the only child of his parents, lost his sense of family. He lived in a makeshift shanty on the streets and was often beaten by his drunkard father. One day, he ran away from his home in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh to live on the streets of Mumbai, Maharashtra. Like his friends, he spent all his money, which he earned from singing and begging on trains, on addictive substances such as sniffing glue, whitener solvent, hashish, gutka (flavored betel nuts and tobacco powder), and cigarettes. Read more

Delhi, India - India, a land of diversity and complexity, is fascinating and full of intricacies. On one hand India is emerging as a major twenty-first-century economic and political power, and yet on the other hand it is struggling with centuries-old socio-cultural challenges such as the caste system, child marriage, and female feticide. One can find the Internet, mobile phones, and Coca-Cola in remote villages that lack clean drinking water. Cows, horses, camels, stray dogs, and manually pulled rickshaws crawl at a snail’s pace along the same roads as the latest models of imported cars . Men wearing dhoti kurta (the traditional Indian dress for men) and folks in modern international designer clothes live together in the same family and the country’s liberalization of certain laws and policies to attract international businesses contrasts with increasingly stringent laws and policies concerning the regulation of global philanthropy. Read more

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India - In the state of Uttar Pradesh, the carpet-making and sari-weaving area of India, child labor is rampant. In 1979, the government of India formed its first committee to study and suggest measures to address the issue of child labor, and the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act was enacted in 1986. National Child Labor Projects (NCLPs) were launched in 1988 to rehabilitate child laborers and to provide support services, including nonformal education, vocational training, supplementary nutrition, and stipends to children withdrawn from employment. Despite strict laws and millions of dollars spent in government projects, child labor continues to pose a challenge for the government and for nongovernmental organizations. Many of the organizations in the area recognize the extreme need to address this issue at various levels—awareness building in stakeholders, advocacy with the government to improve child labor laws and implementation, empowering the children themselves, and socioeconomic improvement at the community level. Read more

Varanasi, India - Individuals in pursuit of personal or professional opportunities are often forced to move far away from their place of origin. Whether the movement is across international borders or within national territory, most immigrants face exploitation, challenges, or discrimination at one level or another. Life for illegal immigrants includes another dimension, a struggle for existence.

Political viewpoints, nationalism, and economic considerations aside, the life of an illegal immigrant, coupled with poverty, is heartbreaking. Children and women are the most affected and most vulnerable. Illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, whether they crossed the border into Pakistan or India, live in conditions that have to be seen to be believed. Read more