Visiting India with a fantastic team from the Guild for Service, Montage Initiative, and Fairfield University has been the experience of a lifetime, for which I am extremely grateful. Certain encounters showed me first-hand some of the major issues facing this developing nation and its government: infrastructure, pollution, child labor, etc. While what I saw just begins to scratch the surface, it already elicits a call for action to tackle the major challenges in India – on the part of the government, NGOs, and foreign assistance – in order to raise the standard of living and improve the quality of life towards an even more dignified life for the people there.

Beep beeeep

Walking through Delhi, Vrindavan, Agra, or Jaipur requires much concentration. In terms of senses stimulation overload, Times Square NYC cannot compete with the streets of Delhi. One finds herself navigating through cars, people, dogs, rickshaws, horse carriages, occasionally cows, all the while trying to maintain calm, and ignore the incessant, ubiquitous stares of men, in the midst of non-stop honking of vehicles and dizzying smells. Clearly, the scene feels overwhelming and confusing. Under the circumstances I thank God that our careful bus driver always kept us safe on the road!

Friends and I took a rickshaw ride through the streets of Vrindavan, and what a thrill ride it was! Albeit the fear for our lives from road danger, we laughed and chatted through the squeaks of the rusty rickshaw with no doors on either side, as we drove past cows, honking motorcycles, and whatnot.

As one can imagine, in such a setting, traffic safety is seemingly non-existent, where aggressive drivers force their way between whatever may appear as a relatively open space. The legendary rotaries exemplify this. The Delhi traffic was one issue of infrastructure to add to the barely begun “to do” list of the government.

Infrastructure is generally weak in the areas visited – whether within cities or between them. Roads are certainly an issue, but the problem is compounded when adding to the mix the lack of homes, shantytowns and slums inside cities, on the sides of roads, and in city outskirts. Architecturally, cities do not always have orderly, planned spatial designs. They are inconsistent and the definition of a road or building becomes ambiguous.

Breathing mask: environment and pollution

As my plane descends upon Delhi, I look outside the window and cannot believe the contrast between the blue sky of the horizon and the gray coating over the city. The pollution level of Delhi is twice as high as that of Beijing. The airport has a hazy, unclear view, as if gazing through mist while sleepy. I learned that this is what pollution visually looks like, after seeing the same scenes everywhere in Delhi. In between coughs, I put on my breathing mask to filter out as much of the air as it could.

The national and city governments of India are taking steps to tackle the challenges of pollution. The first days when we arrived at the end of December, there was an overwhelming amount of traffic – making NYC traffic look pleasant. Starting in January, there was a sudden noticeable difference in the reduction of traffic. The new law took effect on the 1st of January 2016 – cars with license plates ending in an odd number could drive during an odd numbered date only, while those with an even number license plate could only drive on even numbered dates. This theoretically comes close to halving the traffic in Delhi. There are exceptions, like emergency vehicles, (privileged) government workers’ vehicles, and women driving other females or children in the car. The rule appears to be an innovative and much needed approach that is gender-sensitive as well. Its effects remain to be seen.

In addition, workers are hired either by the government or private shops to clean streets, and areas around shops by sweeping the ground. My observations of this however is that the sweepers, in futility, raise and disperse clouds of dust rather than “clean” or “sweep” anything.

Like other issues in India, pollution is at a massive scale. Besides this, there is a great amount of garbage almost everywhere in Delhi, while slums are filled with it rivers or tributaries are extremely polluted; they are a biohazard.

Government work in cleaning up cities and villages is minimal. Public garbage cans are almost nonexistent, recycle bins are a myth, except for in public spaces like the Indira Gandhi airport of Delhi. However, it is encouraging that environmental sensitization campaigns have begun and can be seen everywhere throughout airports and major cities. Under pressure, India has begun to take some steps towards greening its cities. With such a high population, government and people will need to make enormous strides and efforts to achieve any visbile improvement on this front.