Karlijn Morsink speaks English with a distinctively clipped Indian accent, suggesting that her research project altered not only her accent, but also, as she recounts, `the experience confronted me with my own history and my own society.'
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| Karlijn Morsink: `Nanu, a friend of my translator, had invited us for chai. Repeatingly they asked if I wanted to please try a sari because it would look so beautiful with my height and my skin. Ladies took me in a room and dressed me up. Nanu insisted on standing on the step so she would look less small.' |
A master's student from the Department of Technology and Sustainable Development, Morsink spent nine months during the last two years interviewing over 200 people in 16 of India's most remote villages. Her quest was to answer the question: `Does modern energy really contribute to development?'
Working under the guidance of PhD student Annemarije Kooiman-van Dijk, Morsink traveled to collect research about the effects of modern energy (LPG, kerosene, petroleum and electricity) on India's rural villages.
She sought out what types of entrepreneurial activities occur in remote villages. `I was looking in the village clusters at what kinds of activities they were doing to earn income.' At the heart of the project is the effect that modern energy has on the livelihood of small-scale enterprises and society.
With over 80% of India's 1.2 billion population living in villages, Morsink had her work cut out for her. In order to conduct her research, she first had to narrow down the primary small village enterprises; next came the task of conducting lengthy interviews. As a result of such intimate contact, her empathy and concerns for the people of India set firm root. The line between objective and subjective research was not always transparent. `It's a balance you have to find,' she reflects.
On her first daring trip in 2006, she traveled alone to India without the aid of an interpreter or even an initial contact person to receive her at the airport. The airline lost her luggage, which delayed her journey by three days in New Delhi.
From there she traveled to the far northeastern region villages of Sikkim, Darjeeling and Gangtok, where she lodged with families, often sleeping in mud and straw huts. She ate their food, attended weddings and other special ceremonies; she formed close bonds with the villagers.
`You can choose to stay apart from the society and stay in hotels, but if you mingle with the people, they begin to tell about their life. People begin to trust you. They begin to tell you things.' For other students considering going on a field research trip, she offers this tip, `If you want to learn more, then you must live with the people.'
Driving through the hot, steamy Himalayan mountains, left a lasting impression of India, `Woman were carrying big bundles of wood on their heads and bringing small children, who had to walk many, many kilometers just to reach a small school.'
The plight of Indian women alarmed her. `In western society,' Morsink notes, `you are free to make your own choices. You have chances. Women in India have a prescribed role.'
On one of her last days in India, during her 2007 visit, Morsink visited Calcutta at nightfall. Unlike the rural images she had became accustomed to, she laments, “Some of the children did not have any clothes on and were lying on a sheet of cardboard - small, naked girls alone, maybe orphans, maybe drug-addicted. You know what happens to them at night and you just want to pick them up and take them home.'
The results of the project are not yet published. Morsink asserts, `We must see the research project in a bigger picture. It is necessary to understand how and why rural enterprises in developing countries invest in modern energy. Only this understanding can foster decisions by the international policy makers that are truly sustainable.'
Morsink's method of research establishes an inspiring example for others. As Morsink herself reflects, `For qualitative research, you have to connect with the people; you have to be able to open people up. You have to give them the feeling of trust.'
