January 22, 2001 - Life in the Government Housing Project

The Government Housing Project Near the old part of Madras is a swamp in the middle of the river. This is were the cemeteries were built for the foreigners who ruled Madras. No one cared if the river flooded the area. Now this is the military base and a housing project for the poor. In the picture above, the housing for the poor is the short white-roofed buildings which stretch as far as the eye can see. The military base is the taller buildings in the distance on the left. In 1999, Kumar's family and Mumtaz family rented houses (actually just a single room) in this housing project so I was able visit it daily on my third trip.

The Armenian Cemetery There are a number of cemeteries in this area. The house project is built in the midst of the Armenian Cemetery which is where the kids can go and play. Another cemetery in the area is were the British were buried who died in World War I.

Cemetery Road The main road is called Cemetery Road. Here is Mumtaz going to school. She is carrying her school bag. Following Mumtaz is her younger sister in the red flowered dress. Mumtaz, like most children in the housing project, goes to school elsewhere. The wall with the barbed wire on the left is the military base. Note: everyone uses use the side walk and street for a toilet.

The One and Only Toilet Here is the only toilet for the entire town. And it is a pay toilet. The government puts out contracts for services such as recycling toilets. This tiny building is run by SuLab International. The tiny building services about 5,000 people. I seems to have room for about 7 men and 7 women. (I was never brave enough to go inside.) In the city of Hyderabad which is almost as big as Madras, the government has free public toilets on the streets that anyone can use. In Madras, there are no free public toilets anywhere which lets me believe that the government contract for all the city toilets was obtained by improper means forcing people to pay of this service. Only once did the kids ask me for money for the toilets. No one that I met could afford to use them.

Side Streets Branching off from the main street are short side streets. Off of these branch the alleys. Here are two pictures are two typical side streets.

Here is one of the sacred cows... which in southern India is not as sacred as you might think. Most cows do double duty as cart pullers and as a dairy animals. Male calves are often left to starve to death since Hindus have no use for them.

Grocery Stall There are a few small stores in the government housing project. Here is one of the larger ones. Since this area is so near to the old city of Madras, most people walk the mile to go shopping there.

I took this picture when I was looking for Vela one day. Vela always goes and buys the food for me because I would cause a scene if I stood around waiting for breakfast to cook.

Muta Dosa Cooked food can be purchased throughout the housing project. This a lady is making the best food in all of Southern India outside her house. It is called "Muta Dosa" or Sour Dough Egg Pancake. (The lady drinking tea is a customer. The other people are waiting for take out food to be prepared.) Most of Southern India eats rice. Rice is often mashed by machines, fermented over night, and then ground super fine to make a batter for all sorts of foods. One of the foods is Dosa which is like a very thin pancake. Unlike at restaurants, sour dough here is extra sour and, when cooked with an egg on the top, it is wonderful!

Goat Meat For Hindu's, meat and eggs are forbidden. But not for the Moslems and Christians who live here. Vela is Catholic. Therefore, non-Hindus raise goats for meat. Also, goats are good at garbage disposal. Muta Dosa is served with a sauce of goat meat on the side. If you are a vegetarian, you simple ask for a regular Dosa without the egg and skip the goat meat sauce.

Water Water is a problem for all of Madras. Once the British began cutting down all the remaining forests, drinking water has become increasingly more difficult to find. The quality of water in Madras goes down as the water table goes down. Madras is only a few feet above sea level. The old canals are used as sewers. In the housing project, the water is undrinkable (full of nitrates and bugs) for children. The water is carted from central filling stations. At 6 am, people begin lining up for water until about 9 am when the water is turned off.

Women seem to wait hours for water. Each house requires about 6 jars of water per day. In this age of modern plastics, most of the jars are polyethylene. Only a few people still use tin jars.

Elementary School There is a private school in the housing project run by a Christian relief organization. All the kids wear uniforms. I was never invited in to see the school. The kids opposite on the motorized tricycle are waiting for the school to open.

I was invited by one relief organization in the government housing project to help with their charity (not shown here.) They support orphans who have been injured. Unfortunately, like most charities that I visited, the charity employees more workers than the people they help. In many cases, the charities only purpose is to provide an income for the people who run the charities, not to help the sick or poor. Six workers for five children is common. One charity employs almost 70 doctors for a 150 bed hospital.

Kumar's House The house that Kumar rented is typical of all the houses in the area. They are just one tiny room with one iron door. (Each door is a new house.) They have no water and no drainage. Outside is a hole with a pipe running to the river a few feet away. Tiny stone holes by the front wall of the room go into the hole.

Kumar and Vela's good brother at Vela's house. At the moment, the alley is filled with sand as they are doing repairs. Even though money is very scarce, Vela's brother still spent money on a boom box and some music tapes seen in the picture on the right. You can see that the roof is just a single layer of asbestos tile panels. When the temperature gets to be 120, this rooms are very hot. That is the real reason most people live on the streets.

Vela's House I decided to rent houses for Vela and Mari. After a long search, we found a nice house. Immediately all of Vela's relative began to show up. I also bought metal beds for Vela, Mumtaz, Kumar and Mari along with cooking utensils, chairs, trucks, and Hindu worship stands (Vela and Mumtaz are Christians... but you don't want to make the Hindu gods angry.) Vela's house was painted and rents for 450 rupees per month plus 200 rupees per month electricity. I installed a fan and lights as well. Therefore, the room costs about $15 per month. I paid for a year in advance. The next rent is due in April 2001. That is my backpack on the bed on the last day I was in Madras. Also in the far right corner are Vela's trunks. The best thing about a house is Vela has some place to store her stuff.

The Tiny Alleys In between all the side streets are alleys for access to the houses. On the right, they are doing construction of a new drainage line outside of Vela's house. That is a very mature-looking Mumtaz with red lip stick and white face powder.

Recycling This autorickshaw is begin rebuilt. Everything in India is recycled so people make extra money by restoring old vehicles. This is one of the many super small industries in India. In this case, the repair shop is simply a spot on the side street of the government housing project.

Here is a close up of the wall of the school in the government housing project.

Here is a typical scene of a woman washing her family's clothes.

Here is a woman with her kids in the morning.

This web site is written by Robert Purser. Contact me at robert_purser@usa.com Back to Table of Contents