Remarkable people!

Call it sheer coincidence.
A recent news item in Indian Express described CBSE’s plans to integrate New Delhi’s Rail Museum, and several museums into its curriculum. While CBSE’s plans are, well, still plans, I was recently witness to an innovative experiment in Bhopal, which is now two years old.

Since September’05, OASIS‘ Pradeep and Shibani Ghosh have collaborated with Bhopal’s National Museum of Mankind, The Regional Science Centre, and The Regional Museum of Natural History to run Parvarish, the Museum School. This is a school that does not have a single classroom, nor does it want one. Every afternoon, a bus picks up 70 kids from three slums across the city, and gets them over to one of the museums. The teachers, five educated girls from the same slums and others from the local B.Ed college, teach the kids basic concepts via nature, and the museums.

The kids enter this school when they are between 5 to 10 years old, and will leave when they’ll be ready after vocational training, for self-employment. During their ‘stay’ at this unique school, they move through four stages or classes- ‘Nanha’, ‘Bachpan’, ‘Khelen’, and ‘Yauwan’.

What makes this school tick is its relevance to the realities faced by slum children and other street kids. It is an inescapable fact that these kids are earning members for their families, and tend to stay away from regular schools. By operating 3 pm onwards, the Museum School ensures that it does not impinge on their working hours. By taking the kids away from the slum environment, the school avoids unwanted interruptions by parents.

I chatted with Nasreen, one of the teachers who hails from the slums, and has worked with other schools like ‘Pratham’ in the past, where she says retention of kids is a big challenge. Nasreen believes that the Museum School succeeds in retaining kinds because: (a) its curriculum is non-conventional and engaging; and(b) it takes the kids away from the slum environment for those few hours. 

While credit is naturally due to Shibani, Pradeep and the teachers, what struck me most was the enlightened, non-bureaucratic approach of the museums’ managements. It would have been rather easy for them to refuse co-operation, but they instead chose a route which, literally, takes the museum to the masses. What better way could there be to de-mystify science and knowledge. Hats off to them!

It would be wonderful if the Bhopal team could share their experiences with NGOs in other cities. Most state capitals, if not other towns, have government museums as well as B.Ed colleges. By leveraging on such existing infrastructure, this could well be the way to create a relevant and low-cost model that complements the formal education system.

Sensible governance & politics! 

A very interesting  advertisement caught my eye last Sunday. A large ½-page ad in Hindustan Times announced the ‘Community Participation Fund’ that the government was offering to urban neighbourhoods across the country.

Simply put, residents of a neighbourhood can get together and ask for an amount upto Rs 10 lakhs, to address a local problem – maintenance of local drains, solid waste management, slum improvement, or whatever the people believe is important.

As a concept, this offer represents a milestone. For long, we have been used to complaining that the government and its officials are unresponsive, don’t address real issues, and money gets wasted. Here, now, is a ‘scheme’ that hands the funds over to citizens.

But, as with many other well-meaning programs( e.g. Rural Employment Guarantee), the real problem, once again, will be with the implementation. Simply reading the fine-print in the ad, and trying to navigate through the JNNURM website, here’s what I anticipate:
• Problem 1: Residents have to prepare a relevant project proposal with signed approval of 51% of voters in the local polling station(s)
 (What’s the structure of the proposal that will satisfy the sanctioning authority? In the absence of a ‘template’ it’s a sure-shot case of being made to run around in circles. How does one determine which voters need to be polled, and how does this polling take place?)
• Problem 2: Proposal to be approved by local municipality, and the Ministry of Urban Development.
 ( Will there be transparent criteria? A time-limit for approvals?)
• Problem 3: The community has to deposit 10% of project cost as its contribution first, and then the government releases balance money to the implementor.
 ( This, to me, is the toughest. Which brave soul will undertake to run the collection drive, and be held accountable for it? I am not sure our neighbourhoods have strong, structured bodies which can wield the stick and do this)

A simplified, transparent implementation process needs to be detailed out. Without that, any well-intentioned community is likely to get frustrated quickly and give up. That would be a tragedy, because this scheme is brilliant in terms of what it sets out to do.

Governance and Politics! 

It was one of the most amusing interactions I’ve witnessed. But for the fact that the underlying issue is such a critical one, it was almost funny.

The occasion was the annual ‘State Of The States Conclave’ organized by India Today, last Friday. While the event recognizes and honours states that have done well on various socio-economic parameters, it is also a good time for state and central leaders to debate on current issues. This time, the focus was on ‘Inclusive Growth’.

Hearing Chidambaram and the CMs speak on this topic, one could easily conclude that they were from different planets. Their views seemed to be set apart both in time and space.

Want a sampler? Read on… (Note that these are not verbatim quotes, but instead reflect the gist of the statements made)

Poverty & trickle-down effect

• Chidambaram: “if we continue to grow at 9%, as we’ve been doing, for another 20 years, we can get rid of abject poverty”
• Prakash Singh Badal, Bhupinder Hooda, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, and Tarun Gogoi: “Not happening. Economic growth is not impacting the poor, especially in villages. Disparities are widening”

Money for development

• Chidambaram: “thanks to high growth, funds are not a problem. States have almost Rs 53,000 crores available for them to utilize”
• All CMs( with sole exception of Virbhadra Singh): “where’s the money? Not in my state! We are neck-deep in debt”

Poverty alleviation programs

• Chidambaram: “there is no shortage of poverty alleviation programs. The weak link is in the implementation, which is in the hands of the states”
• Badal: “next year, we should have this discussion under a tree, in a village, so that all of us understand the real issues faced by rural folks. There is no point creating these programs in air-conditioned rooms in Delhi”

Focus on farmers and agriculture

• Chidambaram: “we have focused strongly on agriculture as well. The UPA government has raised procurement prices like never before”
• CMs: “Farmers are burdened like never before. Procurement prices are low, inputs prices are high, and credit is limited. They are under severe pressure”

Some of the CMs’ rhetoric may have been mere posturing in order to get the FM to loosen his purse-strings. But discounting for that, it was still evident that the FM’s planet presents a rosy picture, and is almost flowing with milk and honey. On the other hand, the CMs belong to a plane where the denizens are still impoverished, and pessimistic about the future.

Which is the real India?

Remarkable people!

IT professional Pradeep Ghosh’s mind is a vibrant laboratory, constantly churning new ideas. I met him recently, after economist Bibek Debroy suggested that I do so, to understand an experiment in MP’s Betul district, that he is running. If he succeeds, it could have FMCG and other mass-market companies drooling, the UPA government paying attention, and, most important, provide poor villagers the social security net that they have only dreamt of.

The idea germinated in 2001 when Pradeep chucked his MNC job, and set out to discover how social security systems could be made to work for the poor in 3rd world countries. His big question was: how can the rural poor get protection against downsides in health, food, education, livelihood, and old age-related problems without imposing any taxes on citizens?

The model that he has developed is breathtakingly simple, yet complex to execute:

• Existing Self-Help Groups( SHGs) in a cluster of villages are motivated to focus on livelihood generation. 4 to 6 families are trained to set up non-overlapping retail shops( kirana, clothing, cereals, etc), while some others become local manufacturers(papad, pickles, etc).
• The rest of the families become consumers for these shops, and are guaranteed quality goods and fair price. Based on their quantum of purchases, a certain percentage of the shops’ margin is set aside to provide social security to these families. A family ‘Passbook’ actually tracks each family’s entitlement, and gets them insurance for life, accident and disability, health, and old age.

Apart from social security for the poor, this model leads to local livelihood generation, creation of retail distribution, and a self-sustained community. Most important, it relies on local consumption and economic activity, rather than dole-outs, to solve a vital social problem.

This experiment was rolled out in 2006 with assistance from the MP government, and NGO, Pradan.  Government gave land for the shops, while Pradan helped identify 16 SHGs across 3 villages. As we speak, the shops are ready, and villagers are getting trained to get started.

Over the next one year, Pradeep and the other stakeholders will closely track key outcomes like consumption patterns, self-sustainability of the shops, and the quantum of social security provided.

Meanwhile, the villagers are excited about the empowerment that this project brings them. They decide what insurance to buy, how much, and from whom. They see this as a ‘ hamara apna’ social security.

Even as this experiment is in progress, Pradeep is advising a community in Maharashtra’s Solapur district on a similar initiative. To me, the rapid roll-out and scaling-up of this model seems important. The government’s ‘Aam aadmi Bima Yojana’ is still on paper, but if Pradeep’s model can be quickly adopted by rural communities across India, it is likely to be far more deep-rooted, and impactful.

CSR that works !

A labourer from Bihar contributing his daily ‘dihadi’, a young girl from Delhi foregoing her weekly movie outing, and thousands of others…have all made sacrifices and contributions towards national causes, via ‘Care Today’.

In 1999, urged by readers and internal employees, to go beyond just reporting calamities, the India Today Group moved forward to set up an interesting initiative. Readers could now contribute actively to aid victims of natural and other calamities.

Since then, the ‘Care Today’ initiative has enabled India Today readers to share the pain and sorrow felt by victims of Kargil war, Orissa Cyclone(’99), Gujarat-Rajasthan drought(2000), Kutch earthquake(’01), Tsunami(’04) and Kashmir quake(’05).

I spent some time with Ajit Chaudhury, Executive Director, CareToday, to understand this remarkable initiative. I was particularly keen to figure out:

• how and why relief projects run by government are usually late, non-transparent, and insensitive, whereas CareToday seemed to be the exact opposite?
• Why is it that the PM’s Relief Fund resembles a ‘black box’ with little transparency? Why do relief victims keep waiting for years, and chasing insensitive officials for help?

After Kargil, CareToday helped 38 badly-incapacitated soldiers move into alternative careers by funding them with initial assets( houses, jeeps, tractors, shops) worth Rs 3 lakhs each, that got them started. The aftermath of Orissa cyclone saw 100 houses being built for widows, as well as several ‘community shelters’.

Innovations were required to address special situations like the Kutch quake so that victims could get support for next few years; hence, FDs were opened in their names, which provided monthly interest of Rs 500/-. 500 houses were built, including 50 for the diasbled.

I asked Ajit what his most challenging assignment has been, and his unhesitating answer was the Tsunami ! While Tamil Nadu got plenty of attention and funds from everyone, the Nicobar islands were a challenge, partly due to remote locations, but also due to security-linked access restrictions( he shared an anecdote regarding having to wait outside the District Collector’s office for 7 days). Notwithstanding that, CareToday got involved by sending a team of doctors from St John’s Hospital, Bangalore; by running a boat service between the relief center and various islands; and lots more.

Looking at all this, it is clear that there are three reasons why CareToday scores - though, implemented on a much smaller scale - over government-run relief efforts:

1. It offers timely help to victims, and helps them recover. Be it a house and a job for a Naga soldier, or boats to dis-possessed fishermen, or providing shelter to kids orphaned by the Kashmir earthquake, the key lies in doing it when it is really needed.
2. Next, is sensitivity. When one of the Kargil victims was lying injured, and depressed, at home, at a remote location in Uttaranchal, a CareToday representative trudged that distance to meet him and his family; reaching out in this manner helped to transform the soldier’s outlook towards life.
3. Finally, there is transparency. India Today regularly reports details of receipt and use of contributions. It is not a black box that just swallows up your money. When was the last time any of us have seen something similar from the PM’s Relief Fund, or other funds like the ‘education cess’?

My big question to Ajit and CareToday has been: why wait for natural calamities to happen? Why can’t India Today and its readers do this good work for the underprivileged, even in normal times?

CareToday’s timely actions, sensitivity, and transparency have a big role to play in everyday India.