(Anglophones, please scroll down - English version at the end !)
A Chennai - 13 millions d'habitants - une grande partie de la population vit dans la rue. C'est la que nous avons rencontre Veela en 2003, puis a chacun de nos voyages, et encore la que nous l'avons retrouvee cette annee. Bien que EW n'ait pas de programme a Chennai, le cas de Veela nous semble assez comparable a celui des autres enfants de la rue que nous soutenons ailleurs, en Amerique Latine par exemple.
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| VEELA et un petit ami - enfant de la rue, lui aussi |
Elle s'appelle Veela et, pour elle, comme pour le reste de sa famille, chaque jour est un combat. Tous vivent dans la rue, sur un bout de trottoir devant une echoppe. Le proprietaire leur en cede l'occupation en echange d'un service de garde la nuit.
A l'age de 10 ans, Veela perd ses 2 parents, victimes de l'alcool. C'est alors sa grand-mere qui prend le relais et assure sa survie et celle de ses 4 freres et soeurs. Veela arrete l'ecole et enchaine les petits boulots pour subvenir aux besoins de la famille. Son frere aine est maintenant conducteur d'auto rickshaw. Quant a sa soeur cadette, tombee enceinte jeune adolescente, elle a du se marier precipitamment..."a love marriage", et non un marriage arrange comme le veut la coutume. Son mari est commis cuisinier et gagne parfois jusqu'a 800 ou 1000 roupies par mois, ce qui permet au moins a la famille (2 enfants maintenant) d'occuper un petit logement, le reve de Veela...
Mais Veela veut rester aupres de sa grand-mere, mendiante, dont elle s'est fait tatouer le nom (Saradha) sur l'avant-bras. Recemment recommandee par une amie, elle a trouve un emploi de femme de menage, 5 heures par jour, 7 jours sur 7, pour 700 roupies (environ 14 euros) par mois et parfois un peu de nourriture pour elle et sa famille (prix du riz: 20 roupies le kilo). Il lui arrive aussi de rencontrer des touristes occidentaux d'un certain age qui lui offrent de menus cadeaux en echange de ses faveurs.
Vivre dans la rue, c'est n'avoir aucune intimite. On se lave a la pompe, on fait sa lessive, on cuisine, on tente de se reposer au milieu du vacarme incessant de la circulation et du passage des pietons. Les bebes dorment sur les nattes ou a meme le sol entre les rats et autres insectes et detritus, les ecoliers font leurs devoirs dans le caniveau. Il faut aussi faire face a la violence endemique: vols des effets personnels, bagarres, alcoolisme...la police veille mais sans doute pas sans contrepartie.
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| des enfants qui dorment dans la rue |
C'est dans de telles conditions que Veela mene son combat quotidien, mais a quel prix et quel avenir pour tous ces enfants nes dans la rue?
Ne manquez pas, dans quelques jours, notre article sur l'operation produits issus du commerce equitable. Un joyeux printemps a vous tous - EW
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| Une jeune enfant au milieu des detritus |
ENGLISH -LANGUAGE VERSION:
Veela's Story - Or 2 Decades in the Streets of Chennai (See picture at top)
The EW team is currently working in Chennai, the Tamil capital of roughly 13 million inhabitants - many of whom are street people. One of them is Veela whom we 1st met during a mission in 2003, when she was just 14. She is one of millions around the world whose destiny is played out along a noisy roadside or a busy thoroughfare. Having known her for 8 years now, we wanted to share her story, as it is in many ways emblematic of those street kids EW has worked with in Latin America, in Black Africa, or elsewhere in India.
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| A Street Kid in Triplicane High Road - Veela's neighborhoodin Chennai |
Life is a battle for survival every day for Veela and her extended family. Her parents were street people, but succumbed to alcoholism by the time she was about 10, when she also dropped out of elementary school. Her grandmother then looked after Veela and her 2 brothers and 2 younger sisters. After closing hours, the manager of the Air Cell shop will allow them to sleep on the sidewalk in front of his shop, in exchange for keeping an eye out for burglars. Such "pavement privileges" are jealously guarded.
Over the years Veela picked up odd jobs, but we often found her in rags and in need of medical attention (one foot accident in 2009 left bone showing and clear signs of serious infection). Often she was out begging for food or a few rupees. Over the years, one brother has become an auto-rickshaw driver and a younger sister who got pregnant in her early teens quickly got hitched in a "love marriage" (as opposed to a marriage customarily arranged by one's elders). Veela's brother-in-law is a cook's assistant and works long shifts for 700 rupees/month (some 200$ for a family of 4). This covers food and rent on a hovel - but any kind of a roof overhead remains one of Veela's distant dreams.
There is no hope that such aspirations will be met anytime soon. A friend's recommendation helped her land a job as a domestic drudge, working a split shift in someone's home, 5 hours per day, 7 days a week, for a pittance. This income helps support her grandmother, whose name Veela has had tattooed on her forearm: "Saradha". Her most lucrative prospects ? The occasional encounter with older Western fellows who offer up a decent meal and a nice sari, or a little gift and a trip to the beach in exchange for Veela's favors.
Living in the Streets obviously offers no intimacy whatsoever. Everyone eventually congregates at the street-side pump - where you drink, bathe, cook, wash the clothes on your back - against a backdrop of incessant noise, traffic and pollution. Babies are put down to sleep on the filthy sidewalk and you can see kids sitting in the gutter, trying to do their homework by lamplight. The neighborhood has a friendly atmosphere, but violence is endemic - theft amongst street people themselves, brawls, alcoholism, and little police protection (which might be a for-pay service).
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| Kids put down to bed for the night on the pavement in front of "their" shop... |
Veela continues her fight for survival day after day, but what are the real prospects for this smart 22-year-old ? And for all the other Street Kids in India and around the world ?
In the next few days we'll be posting a bilingual text and pictures of EW and its fair-trade operations - so log on ! Best wishes for spring , EW
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