Mahila Mandals and
Self-Help groups
The self-help groups include those from other panchayats as
well, while Mahila Mandals have started up across a total of 11 villages within
a variety of panchayats but all are located in the Thondamathur block.
Group of women in on CORD Siruvani's 11 Mahila Mandals
Leprosy in Coimbatore
district
A leprosy awareness program was conducted to one of the
Mahila Mandals on the morning of December 17th, 2013. The awareness
program discussed topics such as the signs and symptoms of leprosy, the
diagnostic process of leprosy and the importance of early treatment. They also
discussed public health precautions surrounding leprosy as well as the number
of local cases that their team had treated in the past. Treating roughly around
6 cases per year and 30 cases in the past seven years, their team strives to
provide financial government compensation for those who are affected as well.
TOILETS:
CORD Siruvani has made efforts to construct toilets for the
community in an effort to curb open defecation. Dr. Meera explained that they
first built a honeycomb structure surrounding an open space, dug a deep pit,
inserted cement rings to prevent the liquid from collecting. This allows the
fecal water to leave through the rings and the fecal matter to decompose into
the ground.
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| Dr. Meera explains the engineering behind CORD Siruvani's latrine. |
Unfortunately, due to an increase in labor prices, CORD was
unable to build more toilets within the community. CORD Siruvani intends to
continue to build toilets utilizing the twin pit method, which takes advantage
of nutrient cycling in order to provide future fertilizer.
Another option that many consumers of these products have is
to resell their waste to a ‘scrap store’. For example, if I purchased milk
regularly, I could collect each of the wrappers until they weighed in at one
kilo. I could then take my milk wrappers to the scrap store and exchange it for
18 rupees. In this way, there are differing rates for paper, food wrappers,
cardboard, plastic bottles, and glass bottles.
Pregnancy data was kept here, with a tracking of progress
from each stage of pregnancy in each woman. The current state government of
Tamil Nadu under J. Lalitha provides 12,000 rupees for pregnant women. This
includes:
STAGNANT WATER
Another issue that arose in many villages was stagnant water
in miniature wells. Stagnant water can cause dengue fever and it also serves as
a potential breeding ground for infectious diseases such as hookworm and
malaria. Underdeveloped sanitation systems is a large concern as it is one the
leading causes of the spread of infectious diseases.
 |
| A potential mosquito breeding ground and harboring of dengue fever. |
Dr. Meera pointed out the open drainage system, in which we
could see food wrappers, maggots, and a thick black-green slime. She explained
that there needs to be a grassroots initiative to clean up and maintain the
open drainage system. Since the system was not built on a slope, there is
stagnant water, which leads to a multitude of health issues in the area.
 |
CHAANI POWDER
An environmentally healthy practice and a preventative of
TB, the spread of cow dung was traditionally widespread. Recent media
marketing, however, has popularized a powdery substance called chaani (meaning
cow dung) powder within the community. Regardless of being known to be
carcinogenic and toxic, chaani powder is regularly spread out in the front of
75% of people’s homes for an aesthetic appeal. As a result of its usage for suicide, the
selling and usage of the powder was deemed illegal by the state government. Unfortunately,
due to poor enforcement and smuggling of the powder, chaani powder continues to
be used.
 |
| An example of a chaani powder covered ground, as evident by the green tinge. |
A practice that is currently being used in order to retain
the benefits of cow dung and the aesthetic appeal of chaani powder is to mix
the two. To test this, Dr. Krishna, Dr. Meera’s husband, carried out an
experiment in his micro lab in Coimbatore to test this assumption using yogurt
curds, filled with lacto bacilli. Dr. Krishna added a small amount of chaani
powder to a sample of yogurt and looked at it under a microscope. Within 30
seconds of adding the chaani powder, all the lactobacilli were reported to stop
moving completely. Thus, it was inferred that the powder reversed the
beneficial effects of the cow dung.
 |
| The chaani powder stains the hands of the women, potentially having carcinogenic effects. |
Agriculture and
Organic Farming
A highly common form of agriculture in India is rainwater
and groundwater harvesting. During the monsoon season, massive amounts of
rainwater and groundwater are collected in open wells and canals. In a very
interesting yet straightforward irrigation system, water is channeled to flow
between rows of crops at will.
During the 1990s-2000s, much of agriculture shifted towards
the usage of chemical fertilizers as the central government of India began to
subsidize farming on a macro scale. Currently, many farmers are transitioning
back into organic farming, in which natural biofuels such as manure and
vegetable compost are used. Though producing fewer yields than fertilizer,
organic farming is ultimately healthier for the soil and environment.
 |
| IFFCO Fertilizer being loaded into storage. Farmers will take a loan from the local bank to obtain a designated amount of fertilizer |
CORD Siruvani actively works with local farmers to promote
organic farming and addresses needs surrounding labor and resources.
BETEL NUT USAGE
When a few village women speak, we could make out a distinct
red tinge on their teeth and tongues. We knew this to be from paan, but Dr.
Meera specifically spoke of the ingredient betel nut, explaining how it was
commonly chewed by the men and women in the village, along with some children.
She explained how the betel leaf was non-addictive and even healthy, but the
mixing of tobacco and betel nut, which contains carcinogenic compounds, has
adverse health effects. For more information on Betel Nut and our intervention
against it, please refer to ‘Betel Nut/Tobacco Awareness Program’ under
‘Initiatives’.
Thennamanullur Rations
Shop
Across from the CORD office lies 2 important buildings. One of
which is a ration shop. Each family in the scheduled caste, backwards caste, and
scheduled tribe community is given a ration card. The amount on each ration
card varies with the number of members in each family. That which you can get at the rations market
is less than it is on the public market. For example, a kilo of sugar is 70
rupees on the public market while it is 30 rupees with a ration card. Rice is
free for the given amount on the ration card.
“Don’t Throw your
Waste, Give your Waste” -Dr. Meera
Most of the waste generated tends to come from the packaging
of products bought at stores. This includes plastic bags, paper, cardboard,
polythene wrappers used for milk, and low grade plastic wrappers used for food
such as chips and candy. When these are bought from the store and used, two
main things usually happen to them. For one, they are usually discarded on the
side of the road or in an existing pile of trash. Secondly, if a household
decides to throw all their trash away, they will eventually dump it on a pre-existing
pile of trash, or burn the week’s trash in a pile. Finally, they may also burn
the waste, including polythene plastics, to generate heat to be used for
cooking or heating water.
 |
| Polythene wrappers and other plastics are being used along with palm tree husks as fuel to heat water. |
One of CORD Siruvani’s recent initiatives
included having the elderly make newspaper substitutes for plastic snack
packets. Paying 8 rupees for each packet, the shop owners were in support of a decreased
amount of waste production while supporting the elderly who make the newspaper
packets.
 |
| A proud shopkeeper shows off the newspaper packets that he uses to wrap the snacks he sells. |
For more information concerning waste management, Look up ‘
Environmental Health Leadership Initiative’ under the ‘Initiative’ tab.
School center for 2-5
year olds.
There is a one-room school for children from newborns to age
5 close to the Siruvani office.
Stepping inside, one
will notice that there is chaani powder, the carcinogenic powder mentioned
earlier, smeared all over the floor of the classroom.
As we watched a little girl drop her snacks over the
powder-covered floor and then pick them up and eat them one by one, we knew
that this had the potential of becoming a real community issue.
See the post on Chaani Powder for more information on this
substance.
 |
| An interesting weighing mechanism |
-4,000 rupees after 8 months of pregnancy,
-4,000 rupees after delivery
-4,000 rupees after receiving 3 vaccinations.
 |
| An ad by the J. Lalitha administration explaining the benefits offered to pregnant women |
PRG Middle School-
Further down the street lay the entrance to a small
government school called PRG Middle School. The school itself is made up of
three large rooms divided into smaller rooms with mobile wooden boards. Behind
the school is a large playground with a mound of trash in the corner and toilet
stalls lining the back wall. Later on in the trip, we taught english grammar
classes to the kids. Parthu also taugh a Waste Management and Hygiene
curriculum to the kids. For more information, on this initiative look under
“Environmental Health Leadership Initiative”.
 |
| An empty classroom in PRG middle school |
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| The school's kitchen, from out of this structure billowed a thick black smoke due to the burning of firewood, the only means of cooking afforded on the school's budget. With little ventilation in the building, and much of this smoke flowing towards the school, the smoke constituted a serious health hazard. |
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| School's source of drinking water and tap water. Before the evening noon meal, the children wash their hands here, usually without a bar of soap which is available to them. |
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