700 Million Indians

Two weekends ago I had the opportunity to visit a number of rural India´s villages, the India that over 700 million Indians call home (of population of 1.1 billion). Specifically, I was in the area around Ranchi, which is the capitol of an eastern Indian state called, Jharkhand. Now Ranchi has a population of over 2 million, but I only stayed the nights in Ranchi. The rest of the time I was outside the capitol learning all about check dams, lift and drip irrigation systems and irrigation channels, underground water tables, self help groups, integrated water harvesting-livestock ponds, village development committees, primary care hospitals and the Standard Days Method (SDM) they are promoting to village women who choose (for different reasons) to not use contraceptives, but are able to keep track of where they are in their menstrual cycle through a necklace of red and white beads.


This man was telling me how before his current pond and help from the local foundation the water would collect in the hills and drain right down and go to waste. Now they are able to collect it through a complex water harvesting system.


At our first village, my colleague Franz and I were able to meet with over 60 local villagers.

At the third village on the first day, we met with the school´s student parliament. A group of eight girls sang us a welcome song and gave us bouquets of flowers. I then told them that I too took part in our version of student parliament throughout middle and high school. I failed to mention that I think I wrapped up the middle school vice-president election with a promise of an indoor roller hockey league.

The second day we were able to visit two local hospitals that serve 7 and 13 villages respectively.

The plane ride home was a little harey (hairy?) to say the least. On take off apparently, one of our wheels burnt off or hit something and was completely flat when we landed in Delhi. We were greeted by a fire engine and some security personnel from the airport. I was utterly confused as I had slept through all of the announcements and our first attempted landing :)