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Welcome
Thank you for visiting our India TEM Lab blog! On these pages, we will keep you updated on our progress as we dive into our project: Prevention of Gender-Based Violence Among Adolescent Girls: Harnessing collective action to address gender-based violence and promote social and economic development in a low-income community of Mumbai, India. We will be working with the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and other strategic partners in the city’s M-Ward, focusing on the community of Shivaji Nagar. Our goal: to help build a collective action network allows organizations working in this community to have a deeper and more sustainable impact. In the end, we hope to do our part in helping to empower women and girls by creating opportunities and ending violence. Please check back soon for updates. See you soon!
-Amanda Roberson, Stephanie Snyder and Emily Winans
By Amanda Roberson, MBA 2012
The first two weeks of our project now seem far away. During this phase, we worked closely with our client Lyric Thompson, ICRW Special Assistant to the President, who traveled to Mumbai to help lay the foundation for us to complete our work. We had many conversations about ICRW’s vision for the project we were hired to help them create, a collective action initiative to address the unmet needs of adolescent girls in Mumbai’s M-Ward East slum communities. Working with Lyric and ICRW Senior Technical Specialist Madhumita Das, we began to wrap our heads around the ambitious goal of forming a collective action group. In a nutshell, ICRW wants to bring together multiple entities working on adolescent issues in M-Ward East to work in partnership. The basic premise behind collective action is that combining efforts creates synergies and knowledge transfer, allowing the groups involved to have a greater impact than they could have on their own. 
By Stephanie Snyder, MBA 2012
The rickshaw drivers were striking for an increase in the minimum fare which was set at 12 rupees or 23 US cents. Our ride to work normally costs around 30 rupees or 58 US cents. We learned of the strike the week before our meeting but had no idea if it would affect the rickshaws in Chembur, our area of Mumbai. However, when the staff at ICRW began to remark on the strike on the Friday before our Monday meeting, we feared that we may be in trouble. How would we reach the office? We were used to taking rickshaws and the SOS alert warned that private cars and taxis would be overwhelmed with demand. We had yet to attempt to catch an overcrowded bus and certainly did not want to try it on our most important day in Mumbai. Fortunately, on Sunday, after being denied by two taxi services, an ICRW employee came to our rescue and promised to arrive promptly at 9:00 am to pick us up the following morning. We were relieved but worried about whether any of the representatives from the NGOs would come to the meeting. 
By Emily Winans, MBA 2012
After an hour, we reached our hotel feeling drained and a little nauseous from the ride. Settling into our room, we came upon several discoveries including a toilet that flushed by turning a knob that controlled the main water flow and an air conditioner that worked all day except from 8-10 p.m. We finished the evening by enjoying some local seafood at a nearby restaurant and checking out the eclectic mix of tourists and locals.
Our second day was dedicated to sightseeing. Our first stop was the largest Cathedral in Asia located in Old Goa, where the Portuguese originally established a community. From there we visited a very large Hindu temple and finally landed at a spice plantation where we enjoyed a tour that was cooled by the shade of spice trees. Like most days in India thus far, our senses were overloaded. We enjoyed the aroma of cashew fruit, vanilla pods, a cinnamon tree, and nutmeg. Our tour guide unburied the bright yellow roots of turmeric and the tour ended with a man begrudgingly scaling a palm tree using only his hands, feet, and some rope. Our tour guide referred to him as the modern day Tarzan.
We were jolted back to the fast pace of Mumbai when we left our hotel at 4:45 a.m. on Monday. After what seemed to be the fastest car ride yet, our driver told us to “hurry and get out.” We were rather surprised at his response until we uncovered that he had understood our 6:50 flight as “six-fifteen” and did not want us to be late. Nonetheless, after a long relaxing weekend, we landed in Mumbai comforted by the sights and sounds of the city to which we have learned to call home.
The beauty of the bobble is that it is perfect for any occasion. At times, it can mean yes, and at others it means no. It can also be a sign of politeness to say “hello,” “goodbye” or “ok, we’re finished talking now.” I surveyed my Indian colleagues at ICRW to ask them what the bobble means. Their answers included:
Emily and I went with Rajendra and Ajit, two very knowledgeable ICRW staff members, to our first meeting with a small, local nonprofit called Niramaya which focuses on providing healthcare to the members of Shivaji Nagar. On our way to Niramaya we drove by the infamous dumping ground, a literal mountain of garbage which so many within the community rely on for their livelihoods. The rickshaw finally stopped in front of a blue storefront shutter. We entered through a small door, kept open to allow light into the room revealing posters of frightening-looking ailments displayed around the room. Emily, Rajendra, and I sat along a bench on one side of the small room facing our host, the new doctor in charge of 
Niramaya for only two months. I watched curiously as Rajendra in pressed khakis and button down shirt pulled up his legs and folded them beneath him on the bench, sitting “Indian” style. I felt a tad bit ridiculous as I pulled out my laptop to take notes as we attempted to solicit the information we needed to complete our project from the doctor. He spoke English but seemed only to understand Rajendra’s English. Our accent must have been too “American.” Rajendra had urged us to speak slowly, but for a girl told most of her life that she speaks with a slow southern draw, it was very difficult to reverse the tendency to try to speak faster. 
Our new friends and ICRW lunch mates explained the tiffin wallah food delivery system to us as we commenced the daily ritual of spooning paneer, masala, dal, and cauliflower onto our plates and pinching them our mouth with finger scoops made of naan (Indian flatbread).
By Amanda Roberson, MBA Candidate, 2012
Chandra led us through a couple of packed supermarkets that loaded our senses along with our shopping carts. Navigating through tight aisles packed with people and food, we began to appreciate the diversity of people and flavors. Women dressed in everything from burqas to colorful kurtis to jeans. Spices we had never heard of and unrecognizable packaged food. India is sure to be a daily education as we soak in all of these new images and learn the context behind them.