Combatting the Problems of India

Ben Lerner

I believe largely that the problems of India (mostly) come down to two things: Overpopulation and the societal emphasis on having children no matter the circumstance, and the lack of awareness for the rights of women and the unequal view of men and women.

When going into Asha I saw the mission of a woman, Dr Kirin Martin, to try and combat overpopulation through healthcare, and the lack of awareness for the rights of women through education.

Asha started amidst a cholera outbreak in slums, when Dr Martin recognised that no work was being done to combat this outbreak. She used her qualifications as a doctor to sit in the middle of a slum, surrounded by everything from rats to pigs, and immunize people to try and prevent them from getting cholera. She realised through this that nothing was being used to target the minimal healthcare in slums and improve it, and decided to start Asha as a means of providing healthcare to people in slums, as well as educating them on what certain harmful diseases do, and how to recognise them.

This soon transformed into the education of women on their rights, allowing them to regularly leave the house and be more than just the housewife. The women themselves said that this was initially extremely tough and infuriating for their husbands, however after the 30 years of work that Asha has done they said that their husbands are finally supportive or at least open to the notion of their wives exercising their rights.

The women described themselves as empowered and strong, feeling free to live their life how they chose rather than their spouse.

I believe that the work of Asha has the power to change the slums of Delhi and maybe one day, the lives of the 64 million people in the city slums of India. With around 6 million people in slums in Delhi alone, and 6 hundred thousand being subject to the work of Asha, I think that there is a lot more amazing work to be done buy an organisation who believe in teaching how to fish, rather than giving fish.