Fifteen Boxes of Food

A longer post; I hope you will find the time to read it...

We set off on foot across one of the busiest roads in the city center. Now there is no technique to crossing these roads. It literally is a case of walking your own life across to the other side and hoping that it makes it. Of course like a shoal of schooling fish, there are safety in numbers, so often you will find yourself gaining momentum with a crowd of waiting pedestrians. Eventually a silent agreement is reached that together you can take on the tsunami of traffic. Today this sort of worked, with half of our contingent making it across in one go, and the other half (the one with Me tottering around in the middle of it) left somewhere in the middle, standing like lost lemmings. Packs of yellow taxis zoomed passed us. Hands were raised just in case a stationary bus decided to join the zooming army; the driver of which sits above like a god blind to the lemmings below. Feet were made to dance. Courage sallowed, and any semblance of self-preservation discarded. Eventually our small group made it across to the outside of Sealdah train station.

“Remember that after two pm the traffic changes direction, so if you want to catch the bus back you need to go to Bose Road.”
“Why does it change direction?” I ask.
The Nurse smiles, “It just does...”

The Nurse is accompanying us today as it is my first day working on the Food Program. One of the conditions is that I will commit to volunteer for a minimum of one month. The time minimum means that the poor and hungry aren't made to feel like a tourist attraction – with every day having new faces hand them food, and the Nurse and his team do not have to waste time re-training a new volunteer every few days. The distribution itself is a surprising quick. The collection of the freshly cooked food packets from a local restaurant, the time taken to cross the 'road' and the distribution of the food to the fifteen participants will take a total of about one and a half hours.


Now the philosophy behind the program is interesting. The Nurse believes in long term solutions rather than providing immediate relief from a days hunger. So not only will the participants be able to benefit from long term nutrition, but with the certainty of knowing that they will eat one hot meal each day a massive mental strain is taken away. The hope is that they can then refocus their energy on looking for a source of income and on their health and safety. By visiting the same people every day, their well-being can be monitored and gradually they can be encouraged to take a little more care about their own well being. The provision of one hot nutritious meal a day is also a step towards reducing the health risks of living on the streets; it is hoped that it will help to re-establish a routine of minimal hygiene and gradually increase the physical strength and immunity of the participants. Before the food is distributed the participants are encouraged to wash their hands at the public water fountain. For those too old, weak or without the will, the team wash their hands with a bottle of water and soap. It is a small – but important – detail.

The Nurse also employs four permanent Indian staff; two of which will be working on the food program everyday – the volunteer (Me) is therefore 'helping' but not replacing local workers. There are three large bags to be carried, a first aid kit, and many bottles of water. There are also many hands to be washed and food packets to be opened. Ultimately, the program is not only providing employment for a handful of people, but in a very practical sense, there are Bengali and Hindi speaking people interacting with the participants every day. If they have any immediate problems or health concerns these can be communicated. The daily interaction also works to try and keep the the poorest of the poor integrated into 'society'. One of the challenges of local aid organisations is how to achieve just this; Those without homes and food are slowly pushed further and further to the edge of the community, to the extent that mental instability becomes a high risk illness for the destitute.


Another advantage of the local staff, is that they are making a strong statement by interacting with the marginalised: it seems to be firmly embedded in the Indian culture to observe; other travelers love to look, and to see the provision of daily aid beyond the transfer of left over food or coins is really working to make the destitute visible.


The Nurse and his team spent two months monitoring the station everyday in order to identify fifteen people who were always in the same location and therefore would be able to benefit from the regularity of the meals. Those with an alternative means of support (such as a women with a husband) were not eligible. Now the number of homeless children, women and men at the train station comes into the hundreds so the selection is incredibly difficult and to me seems almost humbling; that it is within 'our' (and by this I mean to include you - who even if not geographically present have the means to support the poor and destitute) power to choose who eats today and who might not.


There are of course many other considerations. For example, does providing free food prevent independent alternatives from being sort? But if this was the case then why are there so many hungry people searching (and failing) to find food each and every day and night? Or does providing free food take the pressure from the government to act? However, the homeless are usually those who fall out of the state social net or victims of a system of bureaucracy and corruption. Many of the destitute are refugees from a different country (most typically Bangladesh), from a different state (and therefore not entitled to aid from the West Bengali government) or without a birth certificate to prove their entitlement to state help (which is clearly a major problem for orphans, street children, mentally disabled or trafficked children and women). It could also be argued that helping to feed fifteen people wastes a lot of resources and time on short term satisfaction for a few, rather than focusing on long term solutions for the many. Yet as explained, the idea behind the food program is that one solid meal a day is enough to make a massive short and long term difference to these fifteen lives. And unfortunately resources are not limitless. Besides, if one were to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the poor and destitute in Kolkata, then no aid would ever be offered.


One of the final dangers is that providing food everyday may actually encourage movement to the train station. Yet the reply to this is simple – there are hungry homeless people all over the city, and they are attracted to the train station for practical reasons regardless of a few select handouts. For all of the participants on the food program, the station is their home. For some they have slept on the platform for so many years they can't remember when they first arrived.

Now I will write more about the food program after I have worked on it for more than one day; but for now all I will share, is that providing food to those who have nothing is not humbling, but almost embarrassing. Today I felt awkward; I felt rude – another 'stranger' 'watching'. Appearing to hand out food and then to walk away to sit at a computer and write about it. There is no doubt that it is impossible to be anything but an observer. Perhaps I can try and show you the daily reality of some of the people who have no choice but to reveal their lives to me, but to even begin to try and understand what life must be like without anything, including in some cases communication with other people or rights over your own body, will remain impossible. At the moment I can do little more than give thanks for the freedoms and the choices which I have and the fact that I will eat today without even thinking twice about it. Because the liberty to eat is mine and because poverty or circumstance has never threatened it.

Meanwhile, on the way home the buses remained a mystery...I walked! More to come...