Slum Yoga

My first yoga class for children! Impromptu and disorganised chaos! It was the Wednesday clinic at Dhapa slums; the village built on a garbage dump (see Village of Rubbish) The clinic is held outside of the two room village school, and consists of a plastic table, two chairs, the incredible assistant and the current (maybe qualified) volunteers. The team emerge from the ambassador taxi to be greeted by a rush of Charging Cheering Children. We are pulled and pushed, jumped upon and swung around as tiny hands attach themselves to our arms and twist and turn. It was play time and the children wanted to play.

The children can only speak the most rudimentary English, with Bengali being their mother tongue. However, unlike Gita, they have eyes so can imitate what they see. I stood in the centre of the crowd they had built around me and attempt to clear some space, with the meters of muddy grass only to be immediately refilled by jumping feet. I wobbled into Tree Pose, reaching to the sky as my one leg fought for a patch of ground to stand upon. Within seconds my movements were being copied by a mass of children. Forward bends, twists, a line of back benders followed, as even the smallest reached behind their heads to find a patch of ground and successfully contort their already highly flexible bodies. 'Aunty Aunty' they shouted as they each fought for my divided attention.

By the end of the morning I was exhausted by exhilarated. Their enthusiasm had given me a renewed motivation to develop my teaching skills in order to work specifically with young people.

However, the visit to Dhapa also highlighted the risks of this young generation of slum dwellers. The grass which we balanced upon was rubbish: Garbage which the Kolkata Municipal Corporation rubbish collectors had ploughed into the land, and garbage which had been discarded at random and in accordance with the piles of rubbish being dumped in the slums each and everyday. Walking around the village was like taking a tour of a bio-hazard site. The many multipurpose lakes were filled with ultra violet green water. This was water which had been filtered through fields of waste and drain into the multipurpose lakes. Men sat next to the pools, sewing their fishing nets as other waded waist deep, throwing buckets of bright purple potassium permanganate to 'neutralise' the water, transforming the green of the algae was into a dark purple. A family of fluffy ducks paddled with difficulty through a surface of discarded floating plastic and polystyrene. A young mother showed off her collection of snails which she had just dug from the mud and would later feed to her family. The thoughts of children growing up on food farmed in such pollution reminded me that they needed much more than yoga.

Dhapa village is relatively new (it was established around five years ago) and despite reassurance from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation of the limited health risks, just the thought of the plethora of diseases and mutations which must be developing within their young bodies shocks me into a futile search for solutions.

I wonder what can be done to transform this village into a 'safe' place? What plants can be planted to help to filter the filth? What techniques can be used to remove the sludge from the lakes which are the centre point of the village? What education techniques can be used to help the people of Dhapa protect themselves and their children from the hazardous waste which the city is sending to them?

As we rode out of the slums, piled onto the back of the bicycle cart, truck after truck filled with garbage made its way towards the village. Continuous. Never ending. A reminder of our constant consumption and thoughtless disregard of waste. Fields of crops reached through the plastic soil next to the road. Within minutes we had arrived at a busy intersection, which was marked by the new hotel complex and housing estate for Kolkata's rich. I wonder what they must think of the mountain of refuse which looms in the horizon, or if they realise that their vegetables are being grown in a field full of trash, or if they realise the environmental and the social cost of their consumption? I wonder how attitudes towards trash can be changed? I wonder how non-biodegradable waste can be reduced. I wonder how Dhapa village can be relocated from a chemical minefield? I wonder what a passive and empty word 'wonder' is.