Arriving in Delhi’s sweltering August heat, I couldn’t quite find the right words to define this new place, home to 19 million people, plus one. My descriptions changed radically each time I tried to explain it to someone back home.
“The sun shines everyday, though it’s exceedingly humid,” I said to one person.
“The Metro is world-class, but traffic is chaos!” I told the next.
I found myself providing these contradictory initial experiences. Then I realized maybe this is Delhi: a land of paradox—of opposites and extremes, old and new, fragmented yet rejuvenated.
Under Aga Khan Foundation Canada’s International Youth Fellowship Program, I lived in Delhi, India, for eight months to work on the AKDN Comprehensive Sanitation Initiative which aimed to improve access to toilets, clean water and hygiene education. The Initiative was developed in support of The Government of India’s national campaign Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or the Clean India Mission.
Equipped with a background in global health, prior overseas experiences and AKFC’s month long training, I was ready to work on all aspects of the Initiative from designing training workshops for frontline staff, to attending government consultations.
To prepare for the trip, I spoke with travelers who told me about India’s majestic buildings, colourful garments and delectable foods. At the same time, Delhi was described as overcrowded, polluted, unsafe for women and aesthetically unappealing.
With this in mind, my first week involved going only to work and the plaza across the street. This was tough enough, as it required conquering the disarray of cars, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, people and stray dogs.
While those unattractive descriptions I had heard were not false, I decided not to let them influence me and how I would live. There had to be more to this city, so I hastily began researching.
Finding the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) India office was easy with big blue signs labelled “Aga Khan Hall” on the road. I greeted my supervisors, Asad Umar and Satviki Varma. Everyone was hard at work until the chai came around and the office buzz began. AKF India CEO Tinni Sawhney checked on me frequently, as did several other staff. They provided many suggestions on places to visit and sights to see. I continued my research and discovered Delhi’s prominent impact on world history.
Delhi has been the capital of at least seven empires. The most famously known are the Mughal dynasty and British India. Because so many empires rose and fell on its land, Delhi became known as the “City of Djinns”. Supposedly, djinns, or spirits, never allowed Delhi to truly disappear and constantly ensured its resurgence.
Hence, the sights are vast and endless: from the 11th-century Qutab Minar minaret to the former Viceroy’s House and now Presidential Residence, Rashtrapati Bhavan. There is an abundance of unrestored tombs, palaces and shrines protruding everywhere you turn—all representing the distinctive eras of Delhi’s past.
My sightseeing trips led me to the Hauz Kaus ruins from 14th-century Tughluqabad; India Gate—a World War I memorial constructed in Lutyens, Delhi; and the Jama Masjid situated in Shahjahanabad (now Old Delhi), where 25,000 people still congregate.
Each empire left a tale behind to captivate travellers like me, imagining residents of the time exchanging sweets on Diwalis past, haggling for spices in Chandni Chowk or watching the Mughals’ lavish processions.
Exploring often left this resident quite hungry, but roaming Delhi’s food markets was a feat of its own. While mistakenly buying melon instead of squash for dinner, I found myself distracted by sweet-scented mangos, crackling namkeen and India’s world-famous chaat. If you attempted it all too quickly, the city had a way of overwhelming you.
Tackling a never-ending list of museums and monuments, combined with the unbearable heat, often left me sweat-soaked and exhausted, while my head was filled with centuries of facts.
I decided to slow down, put my guide book away, and see where the city took me. As advised before venturing into the chaos of Old Delhi, “just go with the crazy!” After a couple more months of conditioning and Hindi lessons, I felt truly comfortable in my new home.
A substantial part of my experience was working with AKF on the AKDN Comprehensive Sanitation Initiative. In 2015, about half of India’s population practiced open defecation. Combined with lack of water and soap for handwashing, this led to a number of serious health issues and preventable deaths, particularly in young children.
Lack of facilities further complicated things for adolescent girls first experiencing menstruation. The Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) Initiative was developed to address this highly- stigmatized issue.
Menstruation is often associated with impurity in India, resulting in lack of knowledge on MHM and millions of girls being unaware about menstruation before it occurs. Poor hygiene led to shame and embarrassment, increased health risks and ultimately, loss of dignity. An innovative solution developed by AKF aimed to combat these issues by providing information to women and girls in a sensitive manner, particularly in rural areas. Frontline staff are now equipped with a toolkit of interactive games, menstrual product demonstrations, a flipbook and other communication tools that can be easily taken to different villages. I traveled with my supervisor to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat to train AKF staff on how to use the toolkit to educate women and girls on a range of topics such as reproductive biology, nutrition and good hygiene practices.
Throughout my fellowship, AKF staff provided guidance and mentorship that improved my understanding of development in India and the deep-rooted societal challenges, such as gender inequality and discrimination.
Working from an office in the capital—a hub of political and non-governmental activities—provided opportunities to participate in policy development and strategizing at the national level. As AKF is a member of the Menstrual Health Alliance India (MHAI), I contributed to impactful forums by presenting AKF’s best practices. I also helped build mutually beneficial partnerships by sharing resources such as the MHM toolkit. This helped AKF expand its reach beyond its current program geographies..
I made my final field visit to Sayla, Gujarat, on May 28, which was Menstrual Hygiene Day. Trupti, a 17-year-old adolescent girls group leader, helped me understand the challenges women and girls face.
“The girls from our village who would not be able to talk openly at home can do so in this program,” Trupti said to me. “If someone has a personal problem which is making her anxious, she can ask and get information that helps her and she can openly say I have a problem.”
I saw how the AKDN’s Comprehensive Sanitation Initiative improved health practices in communities first hand. From 2015 to 2019, 700,000 individuals benefited from it and 25,000 women and girls improved their knowledge and practice on MHM.
By the end of my fellowship, I felt I had only scratched the surface in understanding the complexities of development work in a country as large and diverse as India. Working with AKF showed me the importance of partnering with other organizations, working with governments and most importantly, empowering communities to take ownership of their own health.
I will be forever grateful for the chance to learn and contribute to the meaningful work of Aga Khan Foundation India. And for the most heart-warming masala chai I’ve ever had.
I still haven’t experienced everything Delhi has to offer. Over 900 years of history is a lot to absorb in eight months. If you’re planning on visiting, I do have some advice: just go with the crazy and Delhi will enchant you, as it did to me.
