Welfare in India depends on the income like everywhere. The students of the IIT are mostly rich people and studying there for going abroad after finishing their courses. On the other hand we also went to some small villages in the mountains where welfare is a foreign word. The inhabitants told about hard summers without any tourists and too much sun, thus the tea harvest was destroyed in some party of the Nilgiri Hills. So absolutely no income, thus no welfare was possible for sick family members.
Furthermore it does not exist a common health care system for everyone. India has about one billion inhabitants and a huge part of people still live far away from big cities in small villages without a own medical centre. Hospitals are rarely and it is a luxury to medicate by a doctor. The IIT Madras has its own hospital where students are medicated for free. When we applied for our student identity card we also had to fill in our blood group as a measure of precaution. Friends of mine had to go to the hospital because of stomach problems and headache. They got lots of medicine and were forced to do a strong diet. Most of the time the reason for sickness is the food. Spicy Indian dishes and unwashed fruits as well as tap water are quiet dangerous.
Social life in the IIT is interesting in the beginning but after a month it is hard to stay there. There are sports facilities like volleyball, basketball and tennis. Moreover a fitness room and a swimming pool exist but most of the time it is too hot to do sports. Sometimes we used our free time to visit Chennai but there is not much to see, a nice walk on the beach or a shopping tour in the Ana Salei, a long shopping street in the middle of Chennai. Leaving Chennai one a month was essential for us because with the time the IIT makes you feel like in a prison.
Extracted from the “my stay in India” report by Lisa! See the full report here.
Lisa is a lovely german girl that I met in india, and we had a great time with all the indian IIT team… :-)
Insightful writings about India. Of course I live in South Florida in the US and love the heat. Wouldn’t stop me from playing tennis except I guess you can’t cool down by drinking a cold refreshing glass of water. Did you bring your own water filter while over there or just drink bottled water?
Yes, nowadays there are a lot of IT people from India around all over the world. And what I can say: these guys work hard :)
How far away some of natives of india from stable income and good health and how near they are to poverty and sicknesses.
I like it the pictures thanks you very much