I made an official assessment at the girls' hostel. Nothing much happens there, and the girls are locked inside their gate in the afternoons. So this is how they greeted me:
First, I interviewed their housemother (with my translator, a 17-year-old boy who speaks better English than I do Hindi). Her name is Sobhadevi. She is the widow of a man who had leprosy. She's not sure of her age. She completed the first grade.
Sobhadevi works as a housemother from 6 am to 6 pm, seven days a week. She lives in the Little Flower village and goes home when the children are at school.
After that I spoke with the two night wardens, Redu Pradham and Kalawati. The two of them are there from 6 pm to 6 am, also seven days a week. They all came to the hostel together for the interview:
Sadly, one of them admits that it's hard to control the girls and that she has to whack them with a stick (I've seen her do this and let's just say that she doesn't spare the rod). She always has one handy. Luckily, on this day it was just a little switch:
Next they showed me their water pump, with the four toilets in the background.
Three of the toilets have not been working for at least a year. I was sure to include that in my report. This is the working one:
The older girls use an enclosed outdoor shower next to the latrines. It looks like this:
Next I examined the four bedrooms. They all have bunk beds, where the younger girls sleep two or three to a bed.
I counted the beds, the blankets, and the mattresses. I took note of the state of some of the foam mattresses:
One thing that scared me was how some of the bunk beds teetered to the side as a girl climbed up, and then remained slanted (we're not going to let anyone sleep on this one until it's been repaired).
I also took note of all the broken lights and fans. It's about 100 degrees in the rooms at night, and a fan is absolutely necessary (even I'll say that)! Many of the girls sleep out on the verandah where it's slightly cooler. I'm not sure how that's possible without mosquito netting, but they do it.
This is a broken switchboard that the girls have to slam with their hand to get to work. But then little sparks appear at the holes where the buttons are missing. Duly noted: fix switchboard.
By the end of my assessment, the girls were getting restless: I had spent too much time with the housemother and ignored them. Trying to capture my attention, and maybe get photographed, they suddenly all did this:
First, I interviewed their housemother (with my translator, a 17-year-old boy who speaks better English than I do Hindi). Her name is Sobhadevi. She is the widow of a man who had leprosy. She's not sure of her age. She completed the first grade.
Sobhadevi works as a housemother from 6 am to 6 pm, seven days a week. She lives in the Little Flower village and goes home when the children are at school.
After that I spoke with the two night wardens, Redu Pradham and Kalawati. The two of them are there from 6 pm to 6 am, also seven days a week. They all came to the hostel together for the interview:
Sadly, one of them admits that it's hard to control the girls and that she has to whack them with a stick (I've seen her do this and let's just say that she doesn't spare the rod). She always has one handy. Luckily, on this day it was just a little switch:
Next they showed me their water pump, with the four toilets in the background.
Three of the toilets have not been working for at least a year. I was sure to include that in my report. This is the working one:
The older girls use an enclosed outdoor shower next to the latrines. It looks like this:
Next I examined the four bedrooms. They all have bunk beds, where the younger girls sleep two or three to a bed.
I counted the beds, the blankets, and the mattresses. I took note of the state of some of the foam mattresses:
One thing that scared me was how some of the bunk beds teetered to the side as a girl climbed up, and then remained slanted (we're not going to let anyone sleep on this one until it's been repaired).
I also took note of all the broken lights and fans. It's about 100 degrees in the rooms at night, and a fan is absolutely necessary (even I'll say that)! Many of the girls sleep out on the verandah where it's slightly cooler. I'm not sure how that's possible without mosquito netting, but they do it.
This is a broken switchboard that the girls have to slam with their hand to get to work. But then little sparks appear at the holes where the buttons are missing. Duly noted: fix switchboard.
By the end of my assessment, the girls were getting restless: I had spent too much time with the housemother and ignored them. Trying to capture my attention, and maybe get photographed, they suddenly all did this:
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