An Incubation Period

by Divya Bhatia
July 30, 2013

Divya Bhatia '15 is a Starr Fellow working on Connect for Growth, a research project about childhood and maternal nutrition in India. 

 

Rainfall here in Baroda makes it feel more like the Arabian Sea is making plans to expand to the east. The power has been on and off for few hours now, and in the distance I see women in colorful saris secure tarp around the sides of their homes. It's too hazy to see the sunset, but I can spot the soft glow of candle flames flickering through cracks in doors and windows.

Time is going by shockingly fast. The scary realization that summer is more than halfway over is starting to settle in. Of course, I miss my friends, family, and my American lifestyle. So why is it that I don't have the heart to leave this country?

Another question that's been itching in my mind recently is, What's next? I've been spending this beautiful summer here in India working to understand and help improve child and maternal malnutrition in Mota Fofalia, I've had the great opportunity to meet many people who are committed to this cause, and I've worked very hard with my amazing, capable, and dedicated team here to implement the community child malnutrition program. Even though a great amount of progress has been made with Mota Fofalia's community-based malnutrition prevention program (the government of Gujarat is considering implementing Mota Fofalia's model into other communities), I can't ignore the enormity of deaths and disabilities that malnutrition causes nation-wide. However, I'm positive that this work and my involvement with it will continue once I leave Mota Fofalia.

Through courses I've taken, I've researched and written numerous papers on the social causes of child and maternal health in India; however, by living here in Gujarat, I've learned a lot more than I've ever had the chance to learn before in such little time. The intricate network of root causes of malnutrition, including social, occupational, and gender roles, brings so much more into question than simply the problem of poverty. Because I've continually challenged myself with the question of what difference my being here this summer makes, I've learned how difficult it is to actually make change as an "outsider". And, I've learned that as unorganized as India can seem to be, things work somehow and people are genuinely happier here than I've noticed in the US. This optimism and simple honesty of people I've met is incredibly inspiring. The vision of a community with zero cases of severe acute malnutrition is shared by each person in Mota Fofalia, and this is the main reason that the community malnutrition program has picked up with such great momentum.

Even though this enriching summer ends soon, I realize that it is an incubation period for me to absorb as much as I possibly can from this community. This is just the beginning, and there is so much more to do.