It was the day after Gandhi Jayanti that I got on to a train to Deoghar, in Jharkhand. My friends at Pradan (Delhi-headquartered NGO, active in seven states) had been nice enough to help me plan this trip.
Deoghar district, like neighboring Godda & Dumka, figures in the ‘Most Backward 100 districts’ list, published by India Today few years ago.
So, it was a fascinating coincidence that, as the CII-sponsored ‘India @ 60′ celebrations got underway in New York – the epicenter of the globalized economy- here we were, in Jharkhand, about to witness an experiment in home-grown Gandhian model of economic development.
Without sounding hopelessly romantic or impractical, I must say I came away reasonably convinced that Pradan’s Gandhian-style economic model, juxtaposed with the western-style market economy, can actually be a recipe for inclusive growth. I got a glimpse of how Pradan has organized 100,000 families into 5300 Self-Help Groups (SHGs), to enhance their livelihood options, and escape poverty.
Although most families in Jharkhand own 1-2 acres of land, but they are constrained by the uneven terrain, quality of land, and lack of irrigation. In such a situation, Pradan identifies and develops enterprises suitable for local needs, provides resource persons, and creates linkages with government and financing agencies. So you have Tasar plantations, poultry, dairy, horticulture, and vegetable farming becoming available as options. Also, through better ‘watershed development’, farmers can improve the yield from their land holdings.

In Titariya village (Banka district, Bihar), Pradan’s Pranjal Saikia (a veterinary scientist from Assam) introduced us to the Village Watershed Committee (VWC). He has been working with the VWC to bring in a set of revolutionary innovations that are transforming waste land. Whether upland, mid-land, or low-lands, these districts have a lot of land rendered waste due to their inability to retain water for cultivation. In such a situation, innovations like ‘5% Method’, ’30 ft by 40 ft’, ‘Staggered trench’, and ‘Drip Dams’ now enable farmers to prevent soil erosion and retain water. The outcomes are unbelievable – a 2nd paddy crop; mango, lemon and papaya cultivation.

Birma Devi animatedly described her ambitions for her two sons who have studied upto Inter and Matriculation respectively. She wants one of them to become a teacher, and the other a politician. Listening to her, it’s hard to believe that, just ten years ago, hers was a family where they had hardly enough food for even six months in a year. But, for 10,000 families in Jharkhand, and many more in neighboring states of Central India, the silent Tasar revolution has offered new hope.
The efforts of NGO Pradan (along with its sister organization, Masuta) now account for as much as 15% of India’s Tasar yarn production. Their vertically-integrated Tasar strategy covers everything from rearing (of tasar cocoons), to reeling (producing yarn from tasar cocoons), and finally, weaving.
Hari is one of the 12 farmers in Sadalpur village who took the step towards Tasar rearing after hearing from Pradan and others that he could earn upto Rs 15,000/- additional income. It was exhilarating to walk through the 70 acres of ‘netted’ greenery in this village where 65,000 ‘Arjuna’ plants host the Tasar cocoons. (The nets prevent damage to plants, and protect from birds of prey).

We next drove to nearby Raksha village where a group of 30 women have formed a ‘Mutual Benefit Trust’ (MBT) to produce tasar yarn, from the cocoons. This is where Birma Devi works. While she and other women are at work, their small children are looked after at an on-premise crèche. The kids even sang and danced for our benefit!
There are almost 2000 such yarn producers in all.

Madhabananda Ray, the Chief Executive of Masuta points out that this Pradan/Masuta model allows 53% of added-value to be retained by the actual producers, unlike the traditional model where only 25% was possible, after cocoon and finished-goods traders had taken away the lion’s share. Also, apart from the sheer quantity of jobs created, there is also the qualitative, social dimension – tasar offers a dignified job opportunity for marginalized groups like women and landless farmers without being exploitative.
The Tasar revolution can only be the beginning of something much bigger. If everyone has to earn a livelihood, NGOs like Pradan need to keep innovating. In Madhab’s words, “we need a Bell Labs of livelihood innovation”

Satyabrata Acharya has one of the most important jobs in India. As Programme Director, Jharkhand for NGO Pradan, he leads 12 teams who are responsible for guiding over 100,000 families out of poverty.
Dhrubaa Mukhopadhyaya heads one of these teams. When, after graduating with an M.Phil from Jadavpur University, she joined Pradan in 1995, her teachers and classmates thought she was nuts! Today, she and her team of Executives, Subject Matter Specialists (SMS), and Development Apprentices work with 250 villages in two districts of Jharkhand and Bihar- helping them improve their land condition, increase agricultural productivity, and explore additional livelihood options.

Sericulture expert, Prabhati, and Development Apprentices, Meena (Patna University,’07) & Bhavna (BHU,’07) are three young ladies roughing it out in the villages. Working as part of Dhrubaa’s tight-knit team, they display a passion that is hard to find in urban centers today. I witnessed Prabhati and Meena training villagers to produce Tasar cocoon, while Bhavna sang & danced with tribal kids at a mobile crèche being run by Pradan at village Raksha( while the mothers were busy at the Tasar reeling centre).

Having been a spectator to the HR mayhem in metros and mini-metros, where youngsters driven purely by material gains, accept and leave jobs every six months, it was something else to see this young Pradan brigade in action.
Pradan carefully hires and nurtures this young talent. Sujata Nath, the talented HR Executive who traveled with me on my field visit, filled me in on the details of the intensive 12-month apprenticeship that all Pradan hires go through. But, as Pradan scales up its operations to meet its Vision 2017(of working with 1.5 mn poor families), it needs as many as 100 teams(= 800 people) across the country. For Pradan’s HR Director, Nivedita Narain, this is the real HR challenge. On the one hand, Pradan needs to hire such large numbers; on the other hand, retaining this trained and committed team is an equally big challenge. As these executives reach their late-20s or early-30s, and have families, they feel the need to move to an urban centre, in order to get better housing and education.
One way to overcome this hiring challenge is for Corporates to collaborate with large NGOs like Pradan. 4 to 6 years of Pradan training produces some of the best managers who understand rural markets; for corporates addressing mass markets, this could be a boon. By working together with corporates, Pradan could continue to hire the best youngsters, while offering them a road-map (to a corporate career) after 4-6 years.
Are companies like ICICI, Unilever, Asian Paints, and Mahindra’s ready?

This is an interesting sidelight of my trip to Jharkand and Bihar. On the last day of the trip, we drove from Jharkhand’s Deogarh district (where I was staying) to Banka district in Bihar. As we started the journey, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the narrow, straight road was in very good shape. Conditioned by my recent experience with rural roads in Western Orissa, I had anticipated a rough, bumpy ride, but this was different.
The first hour was wonderfully smooth…..until we reached Bihar!

The same straight road suddenly turned unbelievably pot-holed, and I could not but resist capturing this contrast, for posterity.
Apart from the superior condition of roads, I also saw and heard other evidence in Jharkhand that the government machinery does deliver results. One such example was the Dairy initiative being run by the Tribal Welfare Council which grants a shed and two cows to tribal families, thereby enabling them to earn an additional income of over Rs 1000/- p.m.
Notwithstanding political jugglery and the usual kinds of administrative corruption, Jharkhand seems to be delivering better governance than its elder sibling, Bihar.
Couple of years ago, my friend Shankkar Aiyar (Managing Editor, India Today) did a path-breaking feature on India’s 100 most-backward districts, and asked whether smaller states were the answer. He wrote, “In recent times, politicians such as Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and former finance minister P. Chidambaram have argued passionately to reorganize states in smaller sizes so that those left behind in the maze of development can be helped……. But will creation of smaller states help? On paper it seems so, since smaller states have done better. But the acid test would be a study of Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand. The jury is still out on that”.
In my view, the verdict seems clear. Jharkhand has made progress beyond what Bihar offered. Unless Nitish Kumar does a brilliant job, and Madhu Koda messes things up, it is likely that the junior sibling will keep moving ahead.

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.

On the Road !

I recently visited Kalahandi district, in Orissa, and spent a few days there. Bhawanipatna, the district headquarters, is a bone-rattling 8-hour drive from Raipur.

Dullen village, home to a small community of 25 families from the Patra tribe, is one among the several villages I visited.

My interactions with the people here were an eye-opener; while the dark clouds covering the economic development of India’s poorest districts were self-evident, it is the silver lining that was a revelation.

Consider the following case:
Less than 13 years ago, Saraswati Patra and her family, like all other families here, were symbols of poverty and hunger. Relying on a single, monsoon-fed crop, these families would practically starve for six months in a year. They were in the clutches of the local ‘mahajan’ or moneylender who ripped the villagers off by charging them an exorbitant 150%. Their’s seemed like an inescapable fate……

Until good fortune intervened in the form of local NGO, F.A.R.R.

By getting each woman to contribute a fist-full of rice, each day, to a community ‘Grain

Bank’, FARR ensured that food security was ensured for the distress period of July-

December. No family went hungry ever again.

This ‘grain bank’ has now translated into a financial corpus of

Rs 32,000/- that belongs to the women in this tribal community.

Small loans are extended to families that need them to tide over

short-term needs, or even to start livelihood-related activities.

Saraswati Patra’s 23-year-old son, Manohar, took a Rs 1000/-

loan many years ago, and is now the proud owner of a ‘kirana’

shop in the village. Inspired by FARR, Manohar and other

villagers also cultivate sugarcane and vegetables.

No more borrowing from the ‘mahajan’, by anyone.

After tackling hunger, indebtedness, and livelihood, FARR next focused on eradicating

child labour, by facilitating the set-up of an ‘informal school’ that provides preliminary

education.

Today, this proud village has zero debt, zero hunger, reasonable literacy, and confident, busy villagers.

Like Dullen, there are several villages in this area that have made similar progress. All, with only limited involvement of the government.

Remarkable people! 

Unlike many others, Aradhana Nanda’s childhood memories are

not of playing with toys, or friends, but of seeing her mother

teaching young women to read and write, and trying to

persuade them to start saving money. Her mother was a great

source of inspiration for her.

So, when Aradhana saw an Oxfam ad in ‘79/80, inviting volunteers to opt for a  six-month assignment in Kalahandi district, she jumped at the opportunity to carry on with the work her mother was doing.

Going as a single woman to remote Kalahandi was tough. Staying alone in villages, with non-existent living facilities, was even tougher. But, encouraged by parents, she stayed on at Kalahandi, and made it her home.

She set up a social-service organization, FARR (Friends & Associates for Rural                                                         Reconstruction), in 1983/84, and decided that serving the poor tribals of                                                                        Kalahandi would be her primary mission.

By creating ‘grain banks’ and ‘self-help groups’, her team’s efforts have ensured food security in almost 400 villages, and completely done away with money-lenders.

Over 4000 young child labourers - previously engaged in selling fire-wood, grazing cattle, or helping in the fields – were brought into schools set up by FARR in partnership with the government.

These literacy efforts became the foundation on which future community leaders were trained. Today, almost 200 young men and women are active in local Panchayati Raj institutions.

Among other things, they are driving change and awareness in health-related matters, in their communities. Particular focus is on HIV/AIDS awareness for migrant labour, and reduction of infant mortality & mothers’ mortality rates by ensuring safe deliveries in hospitals.

I asked Aradhana what her future plans were. Without hesitating, she articulated her current obsession: to educate village communities regarding the tremendous self-governance rights granted to them under the Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI). This, she believes, will pave the way to salvation, because it gives villagers the power and the funds to improve their future, rather than wait for an insensitive, corrupt administration to deliver.

CSR that works !

It was with some trepidation that I drove past Agra, into Firozabad district. Few weeks before assembly elections, the interiors of UP was hardly the place to be roaming around. But, during the 4-hour journey, I had enough re-assurances from Amit of Dr Reddy’s Foundation(DRF) that we would witness something truly heartwarming once we reached the small town beyond Shikohabad.

Heartwarming, it indeed was. 250 young men and women, all from below-poverty-line families, would walk, cycle, or hitch-hike a ride every morning to get to the 4-room ‘centre’ that DRF had set up. This was the ‘Livelihood Advancement Business School’( LABS) center where, over a 90-day period, these kids would learn vocational skills like selling, data-entry, hospitality, etc, and earn a passport out of the poverty of their villages.

When I spoke to these kids, I realized that this was the only real chance for their families, ever. They would be the first-ever bread-earners for their families if they got a job after the LABS training. Without this chance, they would end up being 250 more gun-toting hoodlums in UP.

As DRF’s LABS expands nationally, with some support from the government, and crosses the 100,000 mark( in terms of youth trained for jobs), it is truly making a difference.