ACJ Field Trip

 Every January, Asian College of Journalism students journey to distant regions across the country to report on rural poverty. My group spent nearly a week in Dharmapuri, a district in Tamil Nadu that is home to nearly 500 villages. Drought, inter-caste violence, female infanticide, intractable debt, farmer suicides, child labor, spotty education, poor sanitary and healthcare resources are rampant;  conditions belied by a seemingly lush landscape of coconut trees, turmeric and sugarcane fields and emerald-green rice paddies. 

This week, I'll work with ACJ print students on their Dharmapuri stories, well aware that my understanding of the region is scanty at best, and with the hope that the results will reflect a semblance of truth.

Some field trip photos:

Dharmapuri egg delivery man.

The town of Dharmapuri from the balcony of our guesthouse.

                                                                                         

In  a village called Vachathi, women are paid by the government to dig storage tanks for rain that never comes.

In 1992, more than 250 forest officials and police accused Vachathi villagers of smuggling sandalwood, destroyed their homes, took valuables and livestock and raped 18 women. Nineteen years later, the men were finally convicted, but few of the women received the full compensation they were entitled to.
    

Women singing. 

A Vachathi home, white-washed in  indigo.  

                                                                                                               

Behind her home, a villager made tea for three of us

Interviewing Vachathi women. 

The view on the rocky trail to a hill village named Erimalai.

The village, which has no latrines, no road, no voice.  

Poultry family.

Winding a top to set it spinning on the ground. 

Kids in Erimalai, where a teacher comes only twice a week. A resident midwife delivers nearly all newborns in the village. When there are complications, women (as well as others who are ill) are carried down the treacherous hill in a sling fasted to bamboo poles to be transported to a distant hospital or clinic. Elephant herds crossing the pass can cause further delays.  

The midwife led us to the home of a woman who had given birth three

days earlier after a painful and exhausting labor. The midwife, Saantha, asked us to name the baby boy, who slept in the arms of another woman while his mother rested inside her home.Sowmya, an ACJ student fluent in Tamil, called him Dasarathi, one of more than 100 names for the Hindu god Lord Rama.

Baby Dasarathi
(photo by ACJ student)

Village men.  

Village men performing old songs. 

A day trip from Dharmapuri to Hogenakkel Falls to interview villagers who make a living from the tourist industry, selling souvenirs, catching and cooking fish, giving  massages and steering these circular basket-boats down the Kauvery River. Paddling vendors hawk coconuts and soda from their boats.

Boats at rest. 

More fun than the Ganga, but with holy qualities as well. 

Before they're launched, the boats must be carried down a steep set of stairs carved into the rocks.  

ACJ student Sowmya Murali, whose Tamil skills made all the difference during the trip.   

We spent a day on a farm reborn through water conservation projects and simple energy solutions. This is the project's founder, Piyush Sethia, a firebrand and activist whose doctrinaire idealism may one day  get the best of him. 

Bamboo cultivated on the farm is used by the farm cooperative to make and sell furniture.

Farm seedlings.



Our farm meal ended with cups of cool, refreshing rose water.

Our favorite Dharmapuri diner, where a savory South Indian breakfast or dinner will set you back 41 rupees (60-some cents). 

Traveling buddies with the proprietor, who made sure the chutney never ran out.