The school in Garrda

We now leave Bundhi district and enter Bhilwara District. The sights unfortunately remain the same, no safe working conditions, children running around, and lots of packing crates showing that the paving is destined for export (product for local markets is not crated). The area we drive through is not on the map, but is called Mata Ka Nala.

We drive though Govindpura, Bijoliya and Bhopatpura . At Bhopatpura we see local farmers taking fertile silt and top soil from the local reservoir to be used in their fields. This may hold the key to our ongoing desire to find a way to regenerate used quarries.

We continue on this road and head back into Bundhi District and to Garrda. At Garrda we head for the school to meet with the acting Principle Mr Somani. In the school we discuss 3 things:

1. The progress on installing the new play equipment donated by Stoneshippers India
2. His staffing issues that are affecting pupil performance
3. His desire for improvements to the school buildings

The staff and pupils are very happy with the new play equipment; this next shot shows that the equipment is installed but the concrete is not dry yet: hence the thorn branches to keep the children off until its ready!

The children are also playing with the volleyballs that Stoneshippers have provided.

Talking to Mr Somani we discover that out of a staff of 8 he has 2 vacancies, the Head teacher being the most important.

In his office are the latest school attainment results, these show a dramatic fall off in results for the older classes – from over 80% passing the required standards down to 35% last year.

I am a Chair of Governors for a Junior School in the UK and I know that if this happened in our school the Governors would have a very serious review with the Head and the staff. The problem here though is there is no Head Teacher and for several years there has been no maths teacher for these children; any wonder that they have not reached their potential.

Mr Somani is working hard on recruitment and he says he should have a new Maths teacher soon. his main concern now is the state of the school buildings and the fact that they are not conducive to learning. He has plans for a refurbishment and extension of the building that he shares with us.

As we walk back to the car with Mr Somani he shows us some work that the children are doing planting native trees and plants and charting their growth.

They have built beds for the plants and have brought soil from the river bed to plant them in. In particular he points out the Neem tree which has apparently has medicinal properties and whose twigs are used as toothbrushes.

The beginnings of a plan are coming together in my mind; BUT we need expert advice. Blindly planting trees in what could be inappropriate soil on unstable filled in quarries would be the worst type of ‘Green Washing’.

From the school we pay an unannounced visit to one of Stoneshippers India’s quarries. The first sight that meets us is a group of Migrant workers clearing an area.

No children or women in the team, all ages have been checked and they are receiving decent wages. This is really excellent and shows that small changes in site processes can work and become part of the normal way of working. I contrast this to the scenes in other areas where the migrant families have children working and women carrying huge loads on their heads. Elsewhere in the quarry the mechanisation is very evident; no children standing bare footed on the jack hammers here.

Could this be done safer; Yes. But it is a VERY significant improvement on other quarries and the benefits in safety, efficiency and product quality and clear and demonstrable. The main issue is cultural (and the fact that many quarries are illegal; why mechanise in an illegal quarry)

On this trip we avoid going into these illegal quarries, avoiding the nice man who runs the nearby illegal quarry and who owns the semi automatic. He wasn’t too please to see me last time and discretion is the better part of valour.

We now need to start to head back to Jaipur so we head towards the City of Bundi to join up with National Highway 12. This trip takes us through some very beautiful farming areas, as we drive through village after village I ask all sorts of questions about the rural economy and just by chance start a conversation about Dung Cakes (it is a 5 hour drive after all !).

It appears that there is now an emerging market for Dung Cakes, they are made as you must have guessed from dung, shaped when damp (nice) and left in the sun to dry. They are used as fuel.
In rural areas there are 3 fuel options, firewood, there isn’t enough to supply every villager – kerosene, expensive or Dung Cakes. These were at the side of the road in a small village near Kevadiya.

The current rate for a good sized Dung Cake is 1 Rupee; apparently 5 years ago you could get 10 for 1 rupee! Clearly the market is developing and some villagers are stockpiling.

And I am told that there are quite often arguments over who has rights to fresh dung. This fascinating subject that would keep small boys amused for hours, brings a lighter note to what is always a very sobering trip round the quarrying areas of Kota.

We arrive into Jaipur at 18:30 and check in for our flight to Mumbai. Jaipur to Mumbai Jet 372 dep 20:1 arr 21:45
My journey back to the UK is via Dubai: Mumbai to Dubai EK 503 dep 04:15 arr 06:00 Then a LONG wait until my connection to Manchester. Dubai to Manchester EK017 dep 14:15 arr 18:10
I need to have a serious chat with our travel agent ‘Company Travel’ as there was a flight to Manchester leaving at 07:55 that I could have easily caught. Clearly they want me to experience the full Dubai airport experience of an 8 hour wait.

Postscript

In keeping with our household’s policy of being carbon neutral have offset the carbon created by this trip using the carbon neutral company flight calculator and purchasing trees to equate with the carbon my trip has emitted.

Conclusion
I had 4 objectives for this trip;

1. To visit different areas such as Bhilwara.
2. Spot checks at a different set of Stoneshippers India sites
3. To meet with the Acting Principle of the School in Garrda
4. To add to my understanding of the extent of the environmental impact of the quarrying

All 4 objectives have been met in what was another fully packed 48 hours in India.

I will be visiting the area again in April 2007 to again check on continued compliance to the ETI based code by Stoneshippers and to start to make firm plans for site regeneration. I now have a much clearer understanding of the site rectification issues and have enough information to properly brief the relevant experts so that we can start to develop a realistic plan.

Sustainability is a never ending journey, it is a balance of the social, the environmental and the economic issues, I am sure that we will never get it 100 % right but we are totally committed to trying.

The work that Stoneshippers India is doing with our help is streets ahead of the other players in the market in India. We have addressed very many of the social problems in their supply chain and the work we are doing with Hadoti will have benefit those outside this supply chain.

It is naíve to say (as some in the UK industry have) that by Marshalls tackling one problem such as removing as child labour from our supply chain we are simply pushing it somewhere else. This is where all the work we are doing with Hadoti comes in. Changes for the better can be made and unless someone does something then nothing will ever change.

But it’s a journey and it will take a lot more hard work to keep improving the situation in the quarrying areas; but if UK consumers want these products and to provide economic benefits to the region then they should demand that the producers act in a socially, environmentally and economically responsible and sustainable manner.

However as always they must seek INDEPENDENT 3RD PARTY PROOF of any statements; having seen the areas with my own eyes on many occasions now; this will be a significant challenge for other suppliers.

Chris Harrop, 21st February 2007