On the Road! 

When one reads or speaks about India’s demographic dividend, it is usually in the context of a large BPO or software work-force, or booming consumer markets, i.e. an engine for economic growth. Often, the flip side is also presented by worried social observers when they ponder over disgruntled, unemployed youth fueling Naxalism or extremism.
But, there’s hardly any talk of how youth can totally transform the social landscape of India in a substantive manner.

In this context, what I encountered during my Latur trip was simply mind-boggling. No less than 4000 volunteers( 3200 males & 800 females), spread across 1000 villages, are engaged in solving real problems in their neighborhoods.
After initial training by Unicef, in which 4 volunteers from each village participate, they go back  with confidence.

One of the volunteers, Amar Jadhav, narrated this story to me: when he and others heard about an impending adolescent marriage in their village( Kishorigarh), two volunteers – accompanied by the Sarpanch & few villagers – descended on the house.

After initial resistance, the family relented and waited till the daughter turned 20!
The scale and impact of such efforts is truly breathtaking, as is the manner in which volunteers have neatly meshed with the local Panchayats, village communities, as well as the government.
I was curious to understand what really motivated these youngsters to volunteer, and be so committed, and asked several of them. The simple answer is that they get respect and life skills. Going forward, some hope to become Panchayat members themselves, while others have ambitions to join the police, or even politics!
If only we can replicate this story across India, then India’s demographic dividend can truly become a powerful engine for economic and social growth.

Remarkable people!

Often, NGOs are most required when the government has gone to sleep, and there’s a vacuum. So, I was curious to find out if that was the case in Latur district, too.
So, when Zia took me to meet Block Development Officer T.K Navale, I was half-expecting a mixture of disinterest and cynicism.
I was wrong. Navale actively helps the NGOs and their volunteers, not financially, but in several other ways. Sometimes a pat on the back; certificates & medals to volunteers on other occasions.

He certainly doesn’t feel threatened or feel that his role is being usurped. On the contrary, he actively offers his co-operation because, as he says, “ the NGOs are volunteers are doing my work. They help us reach a large number of people with information regarding government schemes”.
One measure of success in his Block is the fact that this kind of co-operation has resulted in eight Gram Panchayats now proudly declaring themselves “ Zero Open-defecation”. And, word is spreading fast to other villages, which will soon follow suit.
More power to the people… and enlightened souls like T.K. Navale!

On the Road!

My final-year ‘Term Paper’ at IIM was on Rural Marketing. Thereafter, during my many years of working with FMCG( or other mass-market) companies, the rural marketing challenge would inevitably come up as a topic for discussion. Some companies are hailed as pioneers in rural marketing, while other lag behind.
Having taken a close look at how the network of NGOs and volunteers operate in Latur district, it is time to proclaim that Rural Marketing 1.0 is passé.

It is quite an eye-opener to see how this ‘field-force’ achieves comprehensive coverage of ALL ( almost 1000 villages) in the district, every month.
I met Sheikh Firoz( B.A) with 1.5 years experience now. He could well have been a Sales Executive in a consumer good company, if you look at the way he works. As a Field Co-ordinator( F.C), he has a monthly ‘Beat Plan’ of 32 villages. On a typical day, this is what his beat itinerary looks like: meet Gram Panchayat( 10 am-12 noon); meet SHGs in meetings( 12-2 pm); Meet Young Girls Group( 3-5 pm); meet youth( after 5 pm). It’s a new village every day, but he comes back to the same village a month later.
Firoz has learnt that planning leads to success; that relationships with key village folks is important. Over the last one-and-half years, he has acquired confidence while dealing with village politics, and handling antagonism from those who want immediate gain.
All ten Blocks of Latur district have such dedicated FCs who, through their monthly beats, ensure 100% coverage of villages.
Clearly, FMCG companies, who talk about rural marketing, have a long way to go!!

Inclusive Growth!

 ET readers, CNBC viewers and Business School students know it well that India is mobile-phone country. Penetration and sales of mobile phones far exceed those of personal computers. It is literally as though the mobile phone has tapped into a deeply latent need of Indians to chatter away with their dear ones. On the contrary, the serious PC- while indeed making headway in the Indian market- lags far behind in terms of its impact on the lives of Indian families, especially lower-income and rural ones.
Consider this: during my two days in Latur district’s villages, I barely came across anyone who used computers or saw schools where kids had access to PCs. BUT: every youth and woman volunteer I met had a mobile phone, whose numbers were well publicized, and were the accepted means for fellow villagers to reach out to them.
However, as a result of this dichotomy, there is a great deal of spoken communication among the volunteers, NGOs and villagers, but the programs are overall weak in terms of documentation, information access, tracking and reporting.
To plug this key gap, the PC needs to catch up with the mobile phone… for the sake of development.

Growth-for-All will soon embark on an ambitious program to get corporates and others to chip in with used PCs which can be deployed in village schools and community centers. Watch out for more information.

On the Road!

 A great deal of progress has been made in these villages in preventing or discouraging early, adolescent marriages. But, I would still keep hearing about this girl, or that, who had got married when she was 15,16, 0r 17. This remained a niggling question in my mind until that Eureka moment, while I was with the Deepshikha group – a group of 30 girls in Jagalpur sub-center.
This is an organized group that meets together for one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays to discuss health and social issues that affect their lives. The group meetings are facilitated by Anita, who underwent a 10-day training run by Unicef.
As an observer and participant in this particular meeting, I heard that this group has been in existence for several months now, but it has had its share of ‘floating’ population, as some girls have left to get married, while new entrants have come in after getting married into this village. It was evident that many of these girls had got married well before they had turned 18, and I couldn’t get clear reasons even though I probed.
Then the discussion turned to education, and I popped the question as to why girls were dropping out of school after Class 10, and not continuing to study further. That’s when it emerged that girls drop out of school because the senior secondary school is now in the next village which is 4 km away. Parents naturally dislike the idea of their daughters walking all the way, or hitching a ride. As a result, the girls stay at home, and as a natural corollary, are persuaded to get married.
The immediate answer was cycles ! If the girls had cycles, would they be able to continue schooling? When I offered this suggestion, there was an immediate, excited outburst of chattering. So, I went a bit further, and offered two cycles if they could guarantee that four girls would indeed attend Class 11-12. I certainly didn’t expect the group to burst out applauding, but they did, and it told me that this could well be the answer to empower these young girls, with mobility and freedom.
It was clear to me that a large scale project, to make cycles available, would have to be an essential ingredient in any rural initiative that Growth-for-All would roll out in the coming months.
( An interesting aside: none of the 30 girls has ever learnt or used a computer)

Remarkable People!

Music and dance take over the lives of 50+ children on weekend afternoons as they learn intently from their ‘guruji’, Mr Lal. These kids, mostly girls, learn music and dance as part of the ‘Hasmukh Kala’ program launched at Savda Ghevra.

The brainchild of my friend and IIM classmate, Hemu Javeri, Hasmukh Kala builds on the vision and experience of his family’s decades-old Swami Samarth Foundation in Mumbai. Hemu and his friend Shailja Dutt( the Delhi-based CEO of Stellar Search, the reputed executive search firm) first visited Savda Ghevra few months ago to get to know the community better. Thereafter, Hemu and Shailja quickly gave shape to the ‘Hasmukh Kala’ program, identified the right teacher, and got started.

Hemu has articulated his vision  upfront,”Hasmukh Kala is a unique initiative that is dedicated to a woman who has inspired me over the years. Music is universal, and Hasmukh Kala is focused on using music, dance and drama, to empower women and unite communities. Through guru-shishya based training methods, and with instruments from both Indian and international music, intense learning is imparted to students to enrich their lives. The goal would be for our students to reach the pinnacle of music, dancing and acting and empower them to achieve their dreams!”.

 One hour each of singing, dancing and instrumental music is now the regular routine on Saturdays and Sundays. A few boys also join in to play the ‘bongo’. While most of the talent at Savda Ghevra is raw, ‘guruji’ has already spotted some real bright sparks. Everyone is pretty excited - the kids, guruji, as well as Hemu and Shailja.

Hemu and Shailja are busy planning a big community music event on August 15th, as well future roll-out of Hasmukh Kala, in tandem with Growth-for-All’s own expansion in 2008 and 2009.

For me, personally, it is immensely gratifying to have committed people like Hemu step in and complement the Growth-for-All movement, with their own thoughts and vision. This is a virtuous cycle which lends great strength.

CSR that works! 

Fifteen women from the Savda Ghevra resettllement colony( North-West Delhi) assembled in a room, in early-April, to begin a new chapter in their lives. Growth-for-All, in partnership with TCS, launched an Adult Literacy Program.

Shyamwati, who lives with her husband and four kids, is a classic case-in-point. As I chatted with her, a Bollywood-style story emerged. Her husband runs a tea shop; eldest son, Bhola, is a part-time security guard; other three sons are at various stages of schooling.  She hails from Etah district of UP, and recalls moving to Delhi a year after Indira Gandhi was assasinated. Illiteracy has its virtues: the mind relies on significant events as  anchors!

I was keen to find out why she had been never been to school.  Actually, she did have chance to attend school. For a few months,  she would walk 2 km to the next village , where the school was located. Until one day, the school master caught her plucking fruits from someone else’s tree. He whacked her. In anger, she hit him on the head with an iron rod, which resulted in 18 stitches on his head. Scared, she ran away from school, and never went back.

Gayatri’s tale is sadder. This mother of three kids dropped out of school for financial reasons when her brother died of polio.

After all these years, Shyamwati, Gayatri and thirteen other women are determined to achieve functional literacy through TCS‘ Adult Literacy Program( ALP).

The TCS ALP is a fascinating program. Originally conceived by the legendary F.C.Kohli, TCS now has a complete set of structured, PC-enabled content that teaches adults to manage their lives satisfactorily. No degrees or diplomas are earned, but each adult is equipped to do basic things like reading signboards, application forms, and other simple messages so that they are no longer helpless.

TCS volunteers get involved in training a community trainer, and running some of the classes during the 40-hour module. The TCS model is a great example of CSR which plays to an organisation’s strengths. TCS know software; so, its only natural that they go out and create a software that helps fight illiteracy, using animation, sound and puppets. TCS has a massive work-force; so, it makes sense for them to engage them in voluntary efforts. The end-result is a great CSR effort whereby adults learn to read and write in as many as nine Indian languages.

Vivek, Bhavna, and other volunteers from TCS- who write software during the week - travel quite a distance, during weekends, to get to Savda Ghevra, and train the community trainers. By doing so, this sincere bunch is doing its bit to ensure that the benefits of the economic boom are shared with their not-so-fortunate brethren.

At Growth-for-All, we are privileged and delighted to have TCS with us.

On September 19th, we walked into the CM, Sheila Dikshit’s residence( thanks to a meeting fixed by my friend, Kanika Mathur, and her mother, Mrs Rajni Mathur) to describe the Growth-for-All model, and seek her advice for using this in Delhi. We hardly thought things would move so fast. But, the CMO quickly arranged for us to meet various stake-holders and before we knew it, we were in Savda Ghevra.

( As an aside, I must add that all our interactions with the CMO have been so dynamic that it goes contrary to popular perceptions that governments move slowly. Just about everyone-Principal Secretary to CM, Mr P.K Tripathi; Addnl Secretary to CM, Mrs Alka Diwan; Jt Secretary, Mr Kulanand Joshi; SuperintendentBhagidari, Mr Manoj Jain-has completely welcoming and responsive)

Its been an hectic, but energizing period for the team at Growth-for-All. We’ve spent the past few months creating the building blocks that will give shape to our ‘movement’ that helps achieve inclusive’ growth & faster socio-economic development through an integrated, scaleable model.

Thanks to the CM’s Office, we’ve had the opportunity to launch our first pilot project at Savda Ghevra, the large re-settlement colony in North-West Delhi. Several week-ends and holidays were spent at Savda Ghevra, and it soon became apparent that this would be truly a test-case for the Growth-for-All model, which believes that each poor neighborhood or local community needs to have multiple ‘inputs’ dove-tailed simultaneously: livelihood, health, education, women’s empowerment, and whatever else is required.

With most Savda Ghevra families desperately looking for livelihood, this became the first focus for Growth-for-All. We quickly introduced Dr Reddy’s Foundation (DRF)to the community, and their livelihood program for the first batch of youth got underway. Three months from now, 100-150 youngsters will find jobs in hospitality, retail, sales, customer service, and auto repair. Repeat batches will then begin. A big ‘thank you’ to the dedicated, committed team at DRF-Amit Sharma, Sunil Sharma, and Gaurav- who’ve spent countless hours and road-miles with us, giving shape to this.

Meanwhile, I was joined by two exciting people as full-time members of the team- Shakti Callikan, and Mathew Mathai. My 3-month-long search for the ideal team-mates had ended, with Shakti and Mathew coming on-board, in February.

Our collective energies are now deployed in exploring a range of micro-enterprise options for the residents of Savda Ghevra, especially women. These include – carpet weaving, food products, assembly of kitchen appliances, running sales kiosks, offering community services, BPO services, and lots more.While livelihood programs get underway, detailed blueprints have been drawn up for upping the ante on health services - additional doctor(s) and clinic(s), specialized health camps and consultation, an ambulance service. In education, innovative education formats for school drop-outs, and adult illiterates are being explored.
While basic, and tangible areas like livelihood, health and education are vital priority, the socio-cultural environment cannot be ignored. Hence, Music & Sports - as a means of recreation & enjoyments, as well as away of building self-confidence and camaraderie. My friend, Hemu Javeri, flew down from Mumbai one week-end, to commit his support for a Music academy where 100 or more young girls will be provided formal training in music. The really-talented ones will be given special, individual coaching, as well as scholarships.

Watch out for more updates from Savda Ghevra as these programs get rolled out. And also, from Alwar district where our second- rural- project gets underway soon.
 

Since early-2007, when I started spending time with NGOs, and in the field, I’ve been repeatedly told that micro-finance won’t fly in an urban setting. Many reasons have been proffered – that SHGs can’t be formed due to group heterogeneity, that peer pressure is not strong enough to guarantee repayments, etc.
So, when Vineet Rai( CEO of Intellecap & Aavishkar) introduced me to Aajeevika, which works at Holambi Kalan and Bawana, in Delhi, it was nice to see this myth being broken.
At Holambi, a resettlement colony in North-West Delhi, Aajeevika has over 1500 ‘loan-members’, across 150 ‘centers’. This approach bypasses the traditional rural SHG model completely, and has a zero incubation period. Prospective members are administered a ‘Group Recognition Test’ to determine whether group dynamics within the ‘center’will work out fine. Starting with loan sizes of Rs 1500/- to 2000/-, these gradually increase to sums upwards of Rs 5000/-.
I had the opportunity to spend time with several ‘centers’.

Each ‘center’ has a fixed, weekly time for its meeting, and members adopt all its rituals, including punctuality and an ‘oath’( where they re-affirm their commitment to each other, and to repay any loans taken).

At one of these ‘centers’( “AHP2018”), Center Manager Madhuri discussed loans that various members wanted;  Rajvanti wanted Rs 8000/- for building her house, Malti for her vegetable shop expenses.

  One interesting encounter was with Kunti Devi who wanted Rs 5000/- to buy a machine for her husband’s welding shop. I had the chance to talk to her husband, Dileep Sharma, as well, and ask him about his feelings regarding his wife’s use of microfinance to fund his business. It was nice to see him being completely open about this.

MFIs like Aajeevika completely recognize that members will often use these loans for non-productive or consumption-linked purposes. For instance, Rajvanti had earlier taken a loan for building a house, but used it meet expenses relating to her son’s illness.

All in all, it was nice to see one more myth being broken. Innovations and progress in the social sector will require us to demolish many more myths ruthlessly.

2008 started off on an interesting note as I spent January 1 checking out  ‘Khushi Clinic’ at New Delhi’s Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar on the outskirts of the city. A joint initiative by Gates Foundation & TCI Foundation, Khushi Clinics are a great example of what happens when a business icon focuses on social change.

While the focus is on HIV/AIDS amongst a specific high-risk group, viz. truckers, what’s different is the Microsoft-like approach to planning( thorough!),scale( nation-wide!) and results( metrics!). Through a partnership with TCI Foundation, 17 truckers’ ‘halt points’ across the country are being targeted under this initiative.
At the Transport Nagar I visited, the ‘Khushi Clinic’ is positioned as a general health clinic for truckers, while simultaneously emphasizing behavioral change with regard to their sexual practices. Tucked away in the heart of Transport Nagar, the clinic- which operates for 8 hours – offers free consulting, and medicines on cost-to-cost basis.  High-quality, standardized communication via films, street plays, etc promote safe behaviour and condom usage. Innovations like ‘Khushi passport’ – which each trucker carries- ensure that medical history is seamlessly transferred to other ‘halt points’ in the country.
As yet another example of how a successful business practice has been transferred to the social sector, it was fascinating to see how nationwide presence has been achieved by using the best-available, local ‘channel partner’. In the case of Delhi, the ‘Khushi Clinic’ is run by the highly-competent Deepa Bajaj of Child Survival India( CSI).

During the time we spent with Deepa, it was evident that the original vision of Khushi Clinics has been completely internalized by Deepa, who in turn, evangelizes it with equal passion and commitment.

Results are meticulously tracked. For instance, Nov’07 saw 1600 footfalls, of which 2/3rd were STI cases.
Watching all this, it is reassuringly clear that social initiatives can be scaled up professionally, and in a business-like manner.