If I Could Have A Clue What Justice Is

It was just two years ago that I first remember hearing of Bangladesh and thinking “Where is that?” As an intern here, I have been privileged to live in a culture infinitely different than my own and about as far from home as it is possible to be and remain on the planet. However, the truly amazing thing is how similar the two places are. We all have noses, wear clothes, love our families, go to school and work.

“What do you do during your day?” is one of my standard questions to ask the pre-teens and teenagers I work with. They proceed to tell me about their morning, school schedule, household chores, studying time, and the need for everyone, even in the slum, to have a private tutor in order to pass their classes. They go on to describe their afternoon as their favorite time of day, when they get to play, and chat with their friends, before helping to make supper and going to bed. With small variations, it sounds like the story of most kids I know.

But the story is different for some of my kids. When I asked Jamuna what she does with her day she said “Carry water, wait in line and then carry more water.” Do you go to school? “No I must supply my house with water, and the water only comes to the pump a little at a time.” Later I ask the adolescents what they wanted to be when they grow up, along with the answers of policeman, doctor and lawyer, came Jamuna’s plea “Auntie, I want to read and write.” She is sure that I, being a foreigner, can make that happen for her.

Jamuna’s situation echoes a growing problem in Bangladesh and in our world. In Dhaka, many slum dwellers barely have enough water to drink, much less water to wash their vegetables or even to flush their toilets. (Toilets that are shared by 100 people each, but that’s another article for another time.)

In rural areas there is enough water, but much of it is contaminated by arsenic. Apparently, the new tube wells that have been put in to give the rural poor access to water have depleted the ground water till it reaches the bottom—an arsenic-laden layer of water. Drinking this naturally occurring arsenic is poisoning thousands of people, resulting in arsenicosis sickness and cancer*.

This poses a challenge for me. I am working for justice here in Bangladesh. Every day I go into the office and help coordinate programs so that Jamuna and others can join a working children’s literacy class**. I teach constantly against early marriage and the practice of dowry (which quantify a girls worth to how much her family can pay, and leave many families in debt for years.) I come home in the evening tired and sweaty from another intense day. A long cool shower is the most delightful sounding thing in the world.

Sometimes Jamuna’s face comes to me. “Auntie, I want to read and write.” If my long shower keeps the water supply for the slums low, am I depriving Jamuna of an education? Does my using up common resources keep her in line for water, in an never ending cycle of ignorance and poverty? Does my personal life complement my work, or contrast it? Some days I rationalize my right to a shower, others I take a bucket bath.
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* Arsenic in the water:
Approximately 70 million people in Bangladesh are exposed to naturally occurring arsenic in their water. Boiling the water does not remove arsenic, neither do simple filters. New wells are effective sometimes, but must be tested every year to see if they have become arsenic contaminated. The Committee is raising awareness in communities about arsenic and teaching people how to check for arsenic in their tube wells. If arsenic is present the tube well is painted red, an indication that this water can be used for washing clothes and bathing, but not for drinking.

** Working children
Currently there are 110 teens and pre-teens enrolled in our working children’s class. They are involved in many different jobs, from helping out at home to embroidering sari’s. Others work as maids in other houses or welders in local factories. The thing they have in common is that none of them go to school, because they are too busy supporting their families. Their contribution is necessary, many families of five have a the total income of $20-$60 US per month.
The working children’s class works around the children's schedule. Through an 18 month course they can learn to read and write well enough to enter school at the 3rd grade level. The program also holds meetings for the parents and employers of these adolescents, raising awareness of child rights, and working out compromises that will let the participant attend school as well as work once the course is finished.
We are beginning another 6 working children’s classes this month, one in Jamuna’s area. If Jamuna convinces the interviewers of her dedication to her education, and if her parents agree, she will soon be on her way to literacy.