Fight to defend your rights…
Been there, done that: some initial perceptions
Attending the village exposure program was mandatory, but some among us had perception that it would be watered down adventure tour that we had a week earlier.
But apart from living in the outdoors with just the basic amenities, the similarities pretty much end there.
Looking back, I don’t see village trip as team-building / ice breaker exercise. With a month long GMP grind and an outing later, our batch has developed a reasonable comfort level amongst ourselves and even a familiarity with each other’s eccentricities.
I cannot call this trip an excursion in rural poverty either, and even if that were its intention it may not have shocked and awed most of us. A city dweller in
But really what stays with you longest, once any trip or experience is over, is not the fun quotient; it’s the food for thought that gets triggered afterwards.
S
o what did I take home…
What has stayed with me is in fact a very positive picture of what an NGO like SEEDS can do, to the cause of empowerment of rural/tribal population, especially the pragmatism in their approach. The volunteers are helping the downtrodden not by lending a helping hand, but by goading them to work hard and ‘fight’ for a more dignified existence. Yes 'perform or perish' is the mantra, and it’s harder to implement than the straight forward Good Samaritan approach. But all the efforts were rooted in ground reality. One of evening schools for girls had pre-teen girls working in Brick furnace. A politically correct stand to oppose child labor will loose resonance with lack of any income alternatives. ‘Right to education’ is more of a luxury, when getting subsidized food grains under PDS for BPL populace is a struggle against whims of the shop proprietor. So owing to the situation their education at school comprises of practical knowledge about government rationing schemes, apart from elementary mathematics and language skills. This awareness at early stage has allowed them to start making efforts in right direction.
The non-utopian world..
Another successful strategy has been to educate women on subsidized bank loans, and inspire them to start their entrepreneurial ventures in groups of ten. What surprised me is the fact that the government seems to have adequate measures in place to help the BPL population, but the unawareness about procurement method allows the bureaucracy to exploit them. Most of these people are unlikely to be in a position to grease the palm of such officers. Furthermore lack of accountability has made procrastination of work a deeply ingrained culture in government sector jobs. I am not sure if this opinion can be generalized, but most of us have faced such apathy at some point in our lives. Yes, I do manage to intimidate a couple of babus by talking in a polished tongue, but nevertheless avoid the leg work involved in getting bureaucratic things done. I had a comfortable upbringing, so I never had to depend on the establishment to procure my basic needs. Hence, the bitter realization about my limitations to undertake measures that can genuinely help this section of society. The knowledge acquired through personal experiences of working around the red tape is a must. So end of the day, it is every individual’s self motivation to sustain the good team work. The NGO’s efforts are more of a guiding light than a guiding force, and that’s very essential for the planned goal of self sustenance.
Beautiful strategy, but you should occasionally look at the results.
But the concrete results were a heartening reassurance of such efforts paying off. The womenfolk had a confidence in their abilities. In fact some men were standing in periphery doing domestic work, while the ladies in their family comfortably interacted with us and explained their socio-business models. Their book-keeping was immaculate with all basic business management rules at ample display (accounting, minutes of meeting and all that jazz). The economic independence of women being a direct contributor to gender equality: another much heard urban/metro concept, but having quietly found its way in traditional setup.
So am I any wiser..!
So to draw upon my learning about a social engineering endeavor, good intentions need to be cemented with first hand knowledge of the system and planned measures to promote self sustenance. But the most important of all is perseverance. This virtue has to be adopted by all stakeholders. Case in point is the fact that concrete results for most initiatives took 5-7 years. Now I am not complaining that the wheel is spinning slowly (actually that might be the right pace), but I am happy that the wheel is spinning, which itself contradicts the perception of many passive empathizers like me. Thank you XLRI and SEEDS for letting me know what minimum is needed to realize such thoughts into action. And now I can infer the purpose of rural exposure program: this is just a guiding light; the guiding force has to come from within.
