By Janet Armitage
Janet Armitage, Associate Professor of Sociology at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, was a 2019 participant in the CAORC-AIIS Faculty Development Seminar to India. The seminar’s theme was urban sustainability and, in this essay, Armitage discusses her Indian experiences with women and water and the importance of bridging expert content with immersive experiences to expose faculty to current global issues. All photos are courtesy of the author.
Before I came to India as part of the CAORC-AIIS Faculty Development Seminar, I was under the assumption that air quality was India’s most pressing environmental concern. The notoriety of urban India’s smog from hazardous vehicle and industry emissions and crop burning is well documented, and it was immediately palpable once on the ground in Delhi. However, I quickly learned that water scarcity is an equal if not more pressing crisis.