VZCZCXRO7440
RR RUEHAST RUEHCI RUEHDBU RUEHLH RUEHNEH RUEHPW
DE RUEHBI #0269/01 1750515
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 240515Z JUN 09
FM AMCONSUL MUMBAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7281
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 2503
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MUMBAI 000269 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON IN
SUBJECT: EDUCATION AND POVERTY PROGRAMS FAIL TO REACH RURAL THANE 
 
REF: New Delhi 552 
 
MUMBAI 00000269  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
¶1.  (U)  Summary:  In rural Thane district, just thirty miles 
from the towering skyscrapers of Mumbai, Congenoff found a 
variety of common development challenges in three tribal 
villages, where government intervention is incomplete or 
non-existent.  Here, some tribal communities struggle to 
maintain adequate shelter, earn livelihoods, and receive potable 
water and electricity.  Several NGOs are active in and around 
these tribal villages, providing health and educational 
services, but their approach is piecemeal, and dependent on the 
goodwill of volunteers and donors.  This cable describes the 
lives of several tribal communities who live mostly beyond the 
reach of the Indian economy, and where the lack of government 
services remain a continual development challenge.  End Summary. 
 
 
 
THANE DISTRICT -- IN THE SHADOW OF MUMBAI 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
 
 
¶2.   (U) Thane District, 21 miles from Mumbai's international 
airport, is considered part of the Greater Mumbai Metropolitan 
Area, a region that includes upwards of 17 million people.  In 
the rural areas of Thane district, however, many state and 
central government development programs have only sporadically 
reached its residents.  The district is 27 percent rural, with 
18.12 percent listed as coming from Scheduled Tribes and 5.18 
percent from Scheduled Castes (those traditionally disadvantaged 
and thus eligible for special government programs to lift them 
out of poverty).  Nearly one in five Thane District residents is 
in the "below poverty line (BPL)" category, meaning they earn 
less than 356 rupees (7.44 USD) per month per person.  For 
tribal people across Maharashtra, the figures are worse: 56.6 
percent of tribal people live below the poverty line according 
to the central government's Planning Commission. 
 
 
 
Prem Seva Mahila Mandal 
 
-------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶3.  (U) Congenoff met with Stella Morais, director of the NGO 
Prem Seva Mahila Mandal (PSMM - Organization of Love and Service 
for Women) in Kalyan, a city two hours from the financial center 
of India, Mumbai.  Morais, originally from Tamil Nadu, and her 
husband from Kerala have lived in Kalyan for over thirty years, 
where her husband owns a construction company.  Founded eight 
years ago and in some ways a fledgling organization, dependent 
on the goodwill of volunteers, the Morais personally fund the 
activities of PSMM, which they run from their home.  The 
organization has no singular focus, but rather tries to make a 
difference in the lives of women, children, construction 
workers, brick kiln workers, tribal villagers, orphans and 
prison inmates in Thane district.  While district-wide the 
literacy rate is reportedly 81 percent, Morais reported that 
very few could read in many tribal villages.  The tribals, all 
landless peasants in this area, have little if any economic 
means and suffer from malnutrition and lack of safe drinking 
water, she said. 
 
 
 
Children of migrant construction workers miss out on school 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----------------- 
 
 
 
¶4.  (U) The Mandal started its work with outreach to the 
children of migrant construction workers.  As they have no 
regular home, the children have never attended formal education, 
according to Morais.  India has a right to education law, and 
each child is entitled to attend school, but many of these 
nomadic families do not know their rights and the children are 
reluctant to enter a strange environment, Morais said.  With 
Morais and two of her volunteers, Congenoff visited the camp in 
Kalyan where construction workers and their families live in 
small metal shacks, roughly 10 x 10 feet, with dirt floors, in 
the shadow of the construction projects where the parents work. 
Morais has a team of volunteers who work with the children four 
to five hours a day to teach them Hindi or Marathi, depending on 
their place of origin, and basic math and reading skills.  She 
 
MUMBAI 00000269  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
accepts that there is little they can accomplish given the 
transitory nature of these families, but her work aims to give 
them a foundation and basic survival skills.  During Congenoff's 
brief visit to the site, the children were enthusiastic students 
in their make-shift classroom, a dirt floor with a roof over it, 
proudly demonstrating their ability to count, add, and sing 
songs.  A seven-year-old girl displayed her betrothal necklace 
-- Morais explained that the child is already married, but will 
not join her husband until she matures, at approximately 13 
years of age.  Though child marriage is illegal, Morais noted 
that it occurs often in very impoverished areas. 
 
 
 
Tribal villages lack basic necessities 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
 
 
¶5.  (U) Fifty kilometers beyond Kalyan, Congenoff visited three 
tribal hamlets, where social and living conditions became more 
rudimentary as the city receded.  At the first, Shailothea Gaon, 
home to Katkari tribals, most of the homes had brick or cement 
walls and tiled roofs, but those further from the road were 
mud-and-stick constructions.  The sturdier homes were built 
under an Indian government program years ago, according to 
Morais.  There were few men in the community other than the very 
young and the elderly; others had left to find work on farms or 
in cities, according to Morais.  This hamlet, with about 50 
young children, had a one-room school for children up to the 
fourth grade, but the middle school was far way, so most quit 
school after fourth grade, she explained.  The community had a 
water pump about 100 yards away, but no electricity, toilets or 
solid waste services and the paths between the huts were 
littered with trash, mostly food packaging and other plastics 
that do not decompose.  Health conditions were poor; being close 
a major road the villagers can get to a primary care clinic in 
town, but they often do not know they need a doctor until it is 
too late, Morais lamented.  Morais brought clean bandages for a 
man with leprosy.   Though the disease is treatable, the tribals 
do not know about modern medical care and there are few outreach 
services, she said. 
 
 
 
¶6.  (U) Further from Kalyan, in a small hamlet called Madliwadi, 
the Ma-thakui tribe lives in mud-and-stick homes and the few men 
left in the village, all elderly, were busy thatching the roofs 
to prepare for the upcoming monsoon season.  The huts generally 
had two rooms, more spacious than many of the slum dwellings in 
Mumbai, but there was no electricity, no water, and no 
sanitation or solid waste disposal.  The river where villagers 
would normally draw water was dry and the women had a long walk 
to a distant pond to draw water.  PSMM is trying to get a well 
dug for Madliwadi, but Morais complained she has not been able 
to get government assistance.  Though there was trash lying 
about the village, there was far less packaging material, 
evidencing the remoteness from urban centers.  Morais reported 
that the village had a health worker with a seventh grade 
education who would check on the people and encourage those who 
needed care to go to the primary health center, but the clinic 
was far away.  There was no school in the village and Morais 
reported that few children made the almost 2 mile trek to the 
nearest elementary school.  The people subsist primarily on rice 
and dal, according to Morais, as there are no stores nearby and 
the villagers have little income to purchase food. Chickens and 
baby goats roamed amongst the huts, but the villagers said they 
were for eggs and milk to sell, not a source of protein in their 
diets.  In addition to selling eggs, the villagers made money 
selling fire wood.  There was a large stockpile of fire wood, 
approximately 150 by 20 feet, at the entrance to the village. 
Now little forest cover remains; the villagers cut so many trees 
they permanently damaged the soil's ability to retain water from 
the monsoon season, Morais noted.  She said they also cut 
precious teakwood trees for fire wood, not recognizing the value 
of the timber. 
 
 
 
¶7.  (U) At the third hamlet, Thakipatar, up a hill and even 
farther from a water source, the men must walk two hours each 
way to fetch water at night; when Congenoff arrived, the women 
were just returning with water in the heat of the afternoon. 
Morais said the water pots were often half full of mud.  There 
was no local food source and the villagers subsist on rice 
alone, Morais said.  Education facilities were also lacking; 
there was a building designated as a pre-school center, but no 
 
MUMBAI 00000269  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
primary school was within walking distance for the children. 
 
 
 
¶8.  (U) A nurse from the local government hospital, who was 
visiting the village at the time, said that the nearest health 
service for these people was 21 miles away and the villagers had 
no transportation to get there.  She brings medications when she 
can get transportation to visit, but she said her efforts are 
often in vain as the people do not take the medication or follow 
medical advice.  Many of the villagers are severely malnourished 
and have blood iron levels as low as seven, where 12 is 
considered normal, the nurse reported.  When she can get them, 
Morais brings the villagers protein packets from AmeriCares, an 
international relief organization with offices in Mumbai.  This 
hamlet had a tiny doctor's office, but Morais said the doctor is 
rarely ever in.  Although the medical building had an informal 
electrical connection (a hook and bare wire hung over a power 
line), there was no electronic medical equipment inside, only a 
fan and a light.  None of the huts had electricity.  There were 
pipes for a water delivery system, but no storage tank at the 
top to complete the system.  After supporting the Shiv Sena 
Member of Parliament in five consecutive elections, the 
villagers reportedly voted for the Congress candidate this time 
in hope that water would finally be brought to the hamlet. 
 
 
 
No Rural Employment Guarantee Program for Thane villages 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
 
 
 
¶9.  (U) The National Rural Employment Guarantee program (NREGA), 
was established to guarantee 100 days of employment at the 
prevailing minimum wage to any rural household across the 
country. (See reftel) However, according to the Government of 
India's website for the Ministry of Rural Development, the 
people in rural Thane and many other areas have not participated 
in the program.  The GOI reports that 164,449 tribal households 
in Thane have been issued job cards under the program, but as of 
May 2009, none were provided employment.  (Note:  Seventeen 
other districts in the state similarly report no benefits have 
been provided under the scheme.  Whether this is due to the 
tribal's lack of knowledge of their rights, or that the program 
has not been fully implemented in this area - or that the Rural 
Development Ministry has yet to update its website -- is 
unclear.  End Note.)  Though none of the people in the villages 
we visited reportedly participated in the NREGA, one sign of 
progress was that each hamlet had a single-lane paved road 
leading to it; the villagers, however, have no vehicles to use 
on such roads. 
 
 
 
HIV/AIDS reaches remote villages 
 
------------------------------ 
 
 
 
¶10.  (U) PSMM also attempts to coordinate medical care for some 
of the villagers, arranging transportation to clinics or 
hospitals, or for private doctors to see patients on a volunteer 
basis.  PSMM also works with an orphanage on the Mumbai-Nasik 
highway, Mukta Jaivan, which houses and cares for 115 
HIV-positive children.  A second orphanage along the same 
stretch of road, Naya Jaivan (New Life), reportedly houses 400 
children of lepers and 100 HIV-positive children.  Morais 
readily acknowledges she is not a medical expert and cannot 
diagnose the medical conditions of the people.  She was unaware 
that the spread of HIV from mother to child is preventable. 
 
 
 
¶11.  (U) Kripa Foundation, another NGO working in Thane 
District, runs a clinic and hospice center for people affected 
with AIDS.  Since the clinic opened its doors in October 2002, 
in the town of Vasai, it has cared for over 1500 patients, 
according to Jimmy Amor, a caseworker at clinic.  Amor said that 
some of their patients come from small villages 20 to 25 miles 
away.  They come to the clinic only when they are in the final 
stages of the disease when there is nothing doctors can do for 
them, he lamented.   The disease makes its way from Mumbai to 
these remote hamlets, often carried by men who traveled to the 
city looking for work and contracted the disease, Amor explained. 
 
 
MUMBAI 00000269  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
 
 
¶12.  (U) Comment.  Although India has made great effort to raise 
the conditions of those in poverty, the breadth and depth of the 
problem is profound.  Government programs for rural areas such 
as the farm-debt waiver program have no impact on tribals who 
are landless peasants; other programs, such as NREGA, have not 
yet been fully implemented in Thane and elsewhere.  In 
Maharashtra, there are huge governance gaps which continue point 
to discrepancies between what is promised and claimed, and what 
is actually delivered.  As elsewhere, India's dynamic civil 
society and volunteer organizations have stepped in to plug some 
of the gaps left by the government's inattention.  However, 
staffed by well-meaning citizens, these efforts are not 
coordinated or planned, and their impact is piecemeal and often 
unsustainable.  While corporations and civil society groups will 
continue to play a role in development, India's mammoth 
development challenges can only be met by a committed, 
efficient, and accountable government.  End Comment. 
FOLMSBEE