Handy

Today was my last day of worky in India and I continued to explore the issue of handwork. Our first stop of the day was a distribution center in a pretty depressed area of the city. We got lost several times, meandered through narrow, unpaved streets and fought our way through crowds of people and animals to get to the tiny center.

Unlike other centers I visited during the trip, this center is operated by SEWA (Self Employed Women's Association), a trade union set up to protect women workers in India. This center received embroidery work from factories and distributed pieces to be completed to its members. Members pay 5 rupees per year to belong to SEWA, which helps negotiate health coverage, insurance, retirement plans and other benefits for its members. And this distribution center is able to pay women nearly double what they would receive from other handwork sub-contractors.

Unlike the facility I visited yesterday, the SEWA center maintains a system to track all its members. It keeps detailed records on where they live, how many pieces each woman takes to work on and how much is paid to each worker. Since SEWA keeps the women's interests at heart, it's no surprise that The Corporation's preferred method of handwork production is through SEWA-monitored facilities.

I then visited a government-sponsored education and training center in the neighborhood. On the first floor, girls who'd dropped out of school were taking lessons while other girls were upstairs learning hand embroidery skills. These girls had been pulled out of school by their parents. The expectation was that girls would help out at home or that their parents wanted to keep them within the protection of their home. In these neighborhoods, it generally isn't understood that access to education can be a positive thing. After all, going to school doesn't bring money or food home at the end of the day.

Established by the Indian Minister for Social Welfare, this operation is different from traditional schooling in that it teaches girls a trade. With the SEWA center around the corner, families recognize that, after several months of training and education and after they become of legal working age, these girls will be able to earn money to help support the family.

I rounded off the day by visiting two malls, one in Delhi and one in Gurgaon. These malls, each less than one year old, were clean, spacious and full of brands I didn't recognize. The Delhi-based Social Responsibility Manager who led me on my retail tour kept explaining why now was a good time for The Corporation to begin retail operations in India. I think my colleagues in the field overestimate how much influence (um, none whatsoever) I have over such decisions back in SF.

Maybe Michael Jackson's from India

I've gathered that the Indian ideal in beauty involves fair skin. On television, billboards and in magazine ads, most Indian models have very light skin.

Furthermore, Indian television advertises cosmetics that help to reduce the "darkening effects of the sun." Like a new Nivea product, Nivea Whitening for Men. It claims to help men achieve the following five objectives:

1. Whitens skin colour
2. Lightens discoloration for even skin tone
3. Delays formation of dark spots
4. Prevents premature skin ageing
5. Smoother and healthier looking skin

Hindi pop

Since I've been in India for more than one week, I think it's safe to say that I'm an expert on Indian pop culture. I've watched my fair share of Indian MTV and some other music video channel called B4U Music. This is in addition to the English language entertainment channel (General Hospital episodes from 2004, Heroes episodes from 2007, episodes of The Office from 2006, Full House circa 1987, season 3 of The O.C., American Idol from 2008!) that I've watched while trying to wake up, get to sleep or catch up on work for The Corporation.

Indian music videos are pretty amazing. They all seem to feature muscle-bound guys singing and doing cheesy dance moves while 20 scantily-clad lasses gyrate behind him and one special one responds to his musical pleading. Of course I can't understand anything that these videos say, but I doubt they're singing about anything too significant.

It may be interesting to note that I haven't heard any ballads or songs in English and all of the videos are dance videos.

Such great sights

You can bet that while I'm in Delhi I'll make time to take in all the sights. Fortunately, our India-based team agrees with my philosophy so they've helped to build in some sightseeing into my work itinerary.

On the 1.5 hour journey to today's first factory, we drove by the qutab minar, a magnificent monument that people are no longer allowed to climb due to suicide attempts and accidents. While we were able to fleetingly enjoy this structure from our car, I would have liked to at least taken a quick walk around it. But that was not to be the case.

And on our way back into Delhi after the factory tours, we stopped by the Dilli Haat, an outdoor marketplace where vendors from all of India's regions sell local handicrafts and artifacts (or "art d'facts" as one sign proclaimed). I may have ended up with a few drawings even though I insisted that I wasn't going to buy anything.

Tea time

At every factory we visit, management offers us tea. I learned early on that factory managers don't take it very well if you decline. They don't say anything outright, but their slightly shocked expressions and arched eyebrows kind of give it away.

Thus, I've learned to accept a cup of tea at each meeting and I've become glad that I do. I've been able to sample a bunch of different delicious teas. I've had jasmine, lemon, chai, lemon chai and probably a few others.

No matter how caffeinated I am, I no longer refuse a nice, hot cup of chai. Especially since Starbucks has yet to make it to this country.

Wack-tory visits

I visited three factories that The Corporation works with today. They were three very different factories, but each interesting in its own way.

First we visited a leather accessories factory where I got to see belts in production: simple dress belts, woven belts and colorful patchwork belts. None of these were for The Corporation, but I did see one of our leather hair-ties being made. It was in the shape of a flower. A flower that was formerly a cow's hide.

The leather factory was very interesting because it had such a different feel from garment factories. This one was very clean, spacious and organized. I realized that leather goods take much more work than I could have ever imagined. People hammered leather to soften it, people braided leather straps, machines die-cut shapes, people hammered grommets onto the belt holes, machines dyed the sides of leather straps and people stitched pieces together.

The second factory of the day was a denim finishing facility. It received jeans from a sister factory in Delhi and workers added whiskers, performed sandblasting and washed them. This facility opened only five months ago but was notable because of all the environmental features that had been designed into its construction. Solar panels lined the roof, the denim laundering process included a step where microbes helped to clean through effluent, heat and exhaust was trapped to heat water and computerized safeguards were in place to regulate electricity consumption. The factory has plans to treat all its effluent and re-use it, thereby producing almost no wastewater.

The third facility was very interesting because it further explored the world of handwork. We visited the "distribution center" to which the factory sent all its hand embroidery work. The center turned out to be the home of a mother and son who received hundreds of garments from the factory, then contracted out the embroidery work to women in the neighborhood.

Like Tuesday's centers, these women lived in a very poor area and under pretty extreme conditions. Women come to the center, pick up several garments, take them home to embroider when they have time while tending to their families, then return the pieces to the distribution center for their wages.

Going out into the community has been an eye-opening experience and I'm finding it difficult to reconcile the idea that garment production is creating opportunity with the fact that it's impossible for anyone to know with 100% certainty that no exploitation is occurring. I know that The Corporation is doing everything it can, but there seem to be so many societal and economic factors working against our good intentions.

Lunch hour

During our day of factory visits, my co-worker informed me that we would have lunch at the McDonalds near the factories we were visiting in Haryana. She thought she was being a good hostess, treating me to foods that would alleviate any homesickness I might be feeling.

When I realized the McDonalds option was simply for my benefit, I insisted she take me to wherever she would normally eat lunch during her factory visits. So, we ended up at this chain restaurant called Haldiram's, which was basically a cafeteria-style family restaurant. We toured the options that ranged from ice cream to dosas to other vegetarian options.

My co-worker encouraged me to get two items: the raj kachori and the choley bhature. The raj kachori was basically a chaat stuffed with all sorts of spices and smothered in a yogurt sauce. It was pretty but kind of too yogurty for my taste and I wasn't really fond of it.

However, the choley bhature was pretty yummy. It was a little cup of spicey stew-type stuff accompanied by two pieces of fried dough. The dough was puffed up like two big balloons and you use the dough to scoop up the other stuff. It was quite yummy and much more interesting than a big mac.