Something Corporate This Way Comes

One of the interesting aspects of living in Bombay is that it puts you in a unique position to see the New India. Just walking down certain streets, looking at the plethora of mega-malls, skyscrapers, and sports-car showrooms, its easy to forget that you're still in 'developing' country. A few months back, a woman said something to me that summed up the New India perfectly. She said, "You know, India is not a poor country. There is a lot of wealth here." And its true; wealth abounds in certain areas, and with this influx of wealth, not only the Bombay skyline is changing - attitudes and priorities are changing as well, much to the benefit of the social sector.

This is a reality that has become increasingly clear to me in recent weeks, as a result of my work. Part of my job lately has been to seek out new modes of funding for my organization, which has allowed me to interact with some of the large companies and individuals that are shaping the New India. Most recently, I had the chance to meet with the head of the Indian branch of one of the worlds wealthiest and, as a result of the financial crisis, most infamous companies. This is a company whose near collapse could have brought on a global economic depression. Luckily bailout dollars have kept them comfortable - something that became immediately apparent once I saw their building.

It never ceases to amaze me some of the places you find New India tucked away in Bombay. Unless you count Bandra East, many of these large corporate buildings are interwoven into the city. My meeting was in Lower Parrel, an very densely packed area towards the city. Normally, Lower Parrel to me would signal narrow streets and small shops crowded near a series of overpasses that lead further into the city - its one of the few parts of the city that isn't littered with trees and greenery. Its a pretty grey, urban area; or atleast I thought it was. The office of this company was to be found in corporate campus in Lower Parell - an entire area blocked off for large corporation buildings. I walked through an unassuming gate located on the streets in Lower Parrel, and it was like stepping into a different world. Suddenly there was an abundance of big open space, of large metal statues and beautiful gardens, of buildings so tall you have to strain your neck just to see the top. It didn't feel like Bombay anymore, or atleast not the Bombay I had grown accustomed to. It could have been any other wealthy developed country, characterized by the same droves business suits and coffee cups. There were a few buildings in the campus, and the one I went to also housed a few other wealthy international companies like Yahoo India.

Ok, so the flashy buildings were cool, can’t deny that. Though, what was really impressive and ultimately more important was the meeting. We meandered up to the 8^th floor of the high-rise building, and were seated in a spacious air conditioned board room complete with fine oak table and big screen tv. After waiting for a few minutes, in walked the head of this company’s India branch. He had the look and stride of a man who had reached the top of the corporate ladder. I half-expected to meet the Indian Gordon Gecko – a callous, corporate goon. Instead, he was very kind and friendly. We had come to just tell him a bit about Youth Venture in the hopes that we might be able to get him. Within minutes though, it became apparent that he was not just some apathetic businessman doing his good deed for the month and humoring us with a meeting. He was knowledgeable and engaged with the social sector, and he had a sincere belief that money isn’t enough, there needs to be sustainability and partnership in the sector.

We brought Khusboo, one of our Youth Venturers, with us because she is a living, breathing example of what happens when you empower a young person. Khusboo started a venture that seeks to support young girls who live in shelters. Herself once a runaway, Khusboo noticed that young girls who live in shelters spend their whole lives there and experience little of the outside world. However, once they turn 18, they are dropped out of the shelter and left to fend for themselves. Recognizing this injustice, Khusboo now provides classes and support to help prepare these girls while they are still in the shelters.

Khusboo was asked how Youth Venture had influenced her life, and then she spoke at length about herself, her venture, and why she believes in Youth Venture. I sat back and watched this surreal scene in front me – this titan of industry leaning in and hanging onto every word of this young girl. The meeting went on, and he made it clear that he believed in the necessity of socially engaged citizenry where every person does their part.

After this meeting, I had a similar meeting further downtown with a lawyer at one of the India’s most prestigious law firms. This meeting was in Nariman Point, an even wealthier area, as affirmed by the sports car I saw revving down the street outside the office. I met with a young lawyer who works with the philanthropic team of law firm. Again, within a few minutes he surprised me by showing that he really knew his stuff. The firm has a history of engagement with the social sector in India, and he described tried to ensure that all its work had an underlying social value. He was very honest about his frustrations with the NGO sector in India – in India, NGOs have long had the reputation of being ineffective, corrupt fronts for money laundering. This is an image that has long tarnished the sector, and it colors many middle class opinions about NGOs and social work. The lawyer I was meeting with firmly believed that this needed to change, and that were certain aspects of the sector that needed to change to create true impact. He was adamant that their needed to be more transparency, clearer metrics, and greater knowledge sharing in the sector. I’m of the same opinion, and we were able to have an interesting, constructive conversation about the necessity of corporate involvement in the social sector.

What came out of these meetings was a realization that I previously believed was just hollow rhetoric. It was the realization that in this New India the corporate sector is poised and ready to become involved in the social sector. Along with the influx of wealth, many people are waking up to the need for social involvement is entering into the hearts and minds. Of course there is still apathy and egocentrism among many, but this is a step in the right direction. Given the recent climate of anger and disgust towards corporate greed and excess, this is especially refreshing and promising. There is a profound interest in private/social partnerships, and if utilized properly and responsibly, the potential is limitless. If this really is the ‘New India,’ then sign me up.

Posted by Neel Odedara

A Typical Day for a Caucasian Guy Working for an NGO in Bangalore and Other Aspects of that Caucasian Guy's Life

My writing, like the way I live, is quite unorganized.  To help this post make sense, I divided it into three sections: Typical Day, Working, and Living.

I will go on random rants about things so e-mail me if you are confused.  I also have not taken any photos or written much while here.  I used to photograph and blog a lot, but recently at my work I have been at the computer, and I try to reduce the time I am in front of technology.  I will try to start writing again, but I mostly write down ideas and rants, and use the Internet to connect people and resources, from events to petitions, pledges and articles for peoples' movements (India has a lot) to causes for friends back home, so if you have anything you want to share, let me know.  On to the post...

Typical Day
Every week I write to a friend back in the States who has never left the US.  He asked me to describe a typical day in Bangalore, where I live and work, so here it is:
I have started to embrace a patterned life, where I eat my three meals a day and try to do what I need to do, so a typical weekday is quite consistent for me.

I wake up around 8-9ish and cycle to work.  I have never seen another Caucasian person cycle in the city so I get a lot of smiles from schoolkids as I block traffic for them so we can cut across busy intersections, stares from car drivers, and laughs from auto drivers ("rickshaws").  I even had an Indian take a photo of me and a couple of people yell, "white man on cycle" so I am broadening horizons on what modes of transit Caucasian people can tackle.

On my ride to and from work I go by:

• the Hockey Association: field hockey is the national sport here.  The more you know...
• a huge Banyan tree: a type of tree that looks like it has 100 trunks as its branches root into the ground (crazy huge) that covers a Hindu temple and a bunch of snack stores.  My friend says they have to cut the branches for the ones near the streets or people will put a temple under them.
• a street with a bunch of pubs/bars (Bangalore, which has about seven million people, claims to have the most bars in the world which I think can't be true as I am from Milwaukee, the beer capital of the US)
• a couple of rich clubs and high-rise apartments (with slums tucked behind them in blocked off land)
• a Hard Rock Cafe in an old stoned building that says "Book Society" above it from when the British were here (right next to the Bible Society), which plays horrible rock music (the Hard Rock and the Bible Society)
• St. Marks: a huge church (Bangalore has many huge churches, a splattering of mosques and a temple every other block)
• Cubbon Park: the largest park in the city with statues of British colonial hotshots and Gandhi, a children's playground and train that goes through the park (both of which I have been kicked out of), a gazebo for weird concerts (and Caucasianpeople to read), thousands of trees from throughout the world, a pond for loud birds, and sometimes a cow just chilling there at night, and we lock eyes in the moonlight
• the new Metro, which is cutting down a lot of trees, destroying a lot of jobs, was decided upon without consulting any citizen groups, and cuts across the field where the two ultimate frisbee teams in Bangalore practice, but it is going to make Bangalore a world-class city (according to the Authorities here, all world-class cities have big metros so Bangalore needs a big Metro)!
• the huge cricket stadium: the major sport here. I have never seen a girl playing, but games are always going on everywhere all day from early morning to late night.
• lots and lots of traffic and pollution, but I cycle around it all and get places quicker than any car could
• lots of street dogs and the occasional cow and two camels that are walked by kids on the street, but that's a rarity

The city is considered the Garden City and the Pensioner's Paradise, both names having more meaning ten years ago before all the construction and high-rises and a lot of the city's small parks where people work out (aka old people walk in circles) are disappearing, but there are still a lot of trees: palm trees, ones with purple, white and pink flowers, and huge, tall ones that hawks and falcons will land on, and bats at night.

Reflecting on what I see on my ride shows all the beauty there is in a chaotic, polluted city like Bangalore if one focuses on the positives.  The central part of Bangalore is also really good at hiding poverty by concentrating slum dwellers in certain communities, and deterring people from pissing on walls (an Indian pastime and one I have taken to quite well, especially at night (it is like camping to be under the stars, moon and tree tops)) by covering the city in religious images (although people just pee on the religion they dislike) and a series of murals of kangaroos (none in India), dinosaurs and dragons and big Caucasian guys with long hair battling them (some in Southwest India), and tourist images of the state, which were painted by local city government to help with elections, and which I must admit are rather beautiful, although local artists hate their tackiness (dinosaurs almost ate Jeff Goldblum; do not call them tacky).

So after my cycle trip, I go to our office on the fourth floor of the United News of India office building.  I have been working for a non-governmental organization called Janaagraha (in Hindi, it means "force of the people") for the past 4-5ish months.  It is like an office in the US except this old barefoot tea lady walks around 3 times a day and gives people "chai", and power goes off often.
Janaagraha works on many urban issues, from traffic and transportation to infrastructure assessment to education and teaching schoolkids about local government to outreach and getting people to vote and get involved in local issues, such as garbage clean-up and civil defense patrols (neighborhood watch).  Our office takes up an entire floor and has about 40 computers with 40 full-time employees and many interns/volunteers coming in and out.  I think I remember reading that the average NGO worker stays for 6 months or so, and India with its one million plus NGOs is probably no exception.  Many people at work are surfing on Facebook and random applications and things, and life often reminds me of the ingenious film Office Space.

Everyone is Indian, and they come from many different parts of India, but most of the folks are from the state of Karnataka that Bangalore is in.  I hear different types of music/languages once and a while, and some of the music is really funky and cool, especially the Tamil fusion music (mixes of western and Indian and classical, hip-hop, etc.).  There is one other Caucasian full-time employee, an Urban Planning student here for a year from New York, and then an Australia youth fellowship program sends people to our work every three months or so.

Indians like to have lots of meetings so people are always moving around talking to each other and scheduling more meetings.  I used to go to a lot of them and that took up almost half of my day, but it was too much arguing, and we forget about actually consulting citizens and people.  I understand the democratic, collective decision making is timely, but our organizational structure seems to discourage it.  We aim to run like a corporation and have weekly Monday mornings where everyone reports to the group, but the floor and decision making goes to our two founders.  A lot of our work seems to be for people as opposed to working with them, but we do have a lot of focus groups, and a lot of our programs do engage with citizens on the ground so I guess the engagement is mixed. 
So a normal day at the office will be sitting around at the computer doing research, but sometimes we will have an event to launch one of our activities and bring in community members, government officials and such.  Once and a while I also go in the field, which means going out with our outreach team to different community leaders and recruit them to get more people to vote and do different political activities.
We also get an hour lunch during the day and there a lot of places to eat around here including an Alliance Francaise, which is the French Cultural Alliance, and has a nice courtyard with lots of different colored and sized trees and butterflies and a funny hyper dog and a dying cat that sounds like a grandfather choking and couching up smoke.  They have an open-air cafe and some Indian-French-Western food mix.  Half of the Indians bring in their own lunch (and I help them eat it on the roof), but half go to restaurants around here, mostly quick canteens and food halls that give you a bunch of rice and meat or veggies and you pay about 20 US cents.  I am learning Hindi in terms of the food names so that helps.
We also have a roof on top of our building like pretty much every building in India (and really outside of the West) where there is a guy that will bring up and sell tea.  There is a neat view where we can see the top parts of the major sights of Bangalore: tips of the skyscrapers which are mini rip-offs of the ones in New York, this government building which is a rip-off of Windsor Castle (where the Queen stays in England), some churches with bright red neon signs, some mosques, and a lot of trees, plus the hawks flying over you.
I usually leave work around 6 if there is something going on but some guys will stay late using the internet, doing more work, watching a cricket game (there is some soccer but they are all British teams), but sometimes I try to go to an art museum/gallery, a cultural center, or some social or cultural event, such as a political or social discussion (for instance on public spaces or people in rural tribal areas being displaced from their lands).  Generally, most of the art and discussions are bad as they are funded by large corporations so the art is about sales and the discussions are quite limited in their scope, but once and a while there is gem (I will describe some of the gems in a later post from community art shows to a slum version of Superman in "India's parallel movie universe" aka the best film I have ever seen).

I usually end up cycling home, which is nicer and downhill, and have been going to Gold's Gym, a US chain, for the past month. There are a bunch of big buff Indian trainers and they are really dorky: always hitting on the one Caucasian lady in the gym and smacking me in the butt once and a while, saying "keep it up Nikolai", so I think that will be stopping soon.

For dinner, I go out to a cheap Indian restaurant or there is a cheap Tibetan place (amazing steamed momos and soups) that I go to or I just hang with my roommates and read.  It is the best food in town, and our apartment's eating habits may be funding the Tibetan community of Bangalore.

So I'd say that's a regular day here.  I try to go to different cities on the weekends as there are a lot of natural and cultural sights around.  We are in the middle of the country so we have the Arabian Sea to the West about fifteen hours bus ride away and the Bay of Bengal another ten hours away to the East and backwaters and coffee plantations to the South, and the rest of India with all its possibilities, contradictions, and craziness to the North.
Working
I discussed a lot of what Janaagraha does above (if you want to know more about any of their programs, let me know).

I have worked on two main projects.  The first one was a training module for their electoral and civic engagement program.  Janaagraha is mobilizing thousands of citizens to work on different community and governance issues, with a focus on electoral registration, get out the vote and informed choice.  I worked with another Janaagraha member on designing community organizer trainings, so our volunteers could create teams, divide up roles, and plan strategies for mobilizing more community members for activities from voter registration to post-electoral social issues like cleaning up a river, the maintenance of a hospital, etc. 
The training module we used was similar to trainings during labor and civil rights campaigns in the US, such as the farmers strikes in California in the 70s and the Montgomery Bus boycotts and other similar civil rights work in the 60s.  The training was co-opted by the Obama campaign for their registration and get out the vote drives and was highly successful, i.e. he won and got many people to register and vote in areas that never did.  The training focuses around narrative construction, or story-telling, in order to connect with other community members. 
To simplify the training for the purpose of a blog, we practice telling three stories: Story of Self (why you are doing the work), Story of Us (an example of how the community or a community has been successful in this work), and Story of Now (why this work is urgent).  For more readings on this, check out the new organizing institute, especially this great article on education.

My current project is creating a "democracy index", where nations try to figure out how to make their election processes better.  So essentially they try to get rid of corruption and having a bunch of dead people or animals who are registered to vote.  The index actually focuses more on reforming the processes of voting, such as registration and balloting, as opposed to larger structural reforms that deal with the number of political parties or campaign finance so it has a limited scope, but can be powerful in processes reform.

I also help with Communications, Outreach, Research, etc. whenever needed so there are always things to do.
Living
Upon arriving in Bangalore, another AIF fellow, April, and I stayed with a friendly young couple.  We found them using the sitecouchsurfing, an amazing network where people post profiles saying that they have a couch, floor space, an extra room, etc. for a certain number of people to stay.  You simply look up people by city and ask if they have space available.  I cannot recommend this site enough.  It's a great way to meet locals and see a new side of a city, from staying with the founder of the Icelandic version of Chipotle to the "Moroccan Bob Dylan" to a diplomat who took me to the home of the Hungarian President.

There are over 2,000 couchsurfers on the Bangalore network so I received many replies to my request for a place to "crash".  For September/October in Bangalore, I stayed with two cousins from Bombay: one physicist who studied in London and the US, and a graphic designer who bought 15 packs of cigarettes to make ash trays out of cigarettes (quite beautiful designs) and is an amazing cook.  He is interested in opening up his kitchen to anyone who wants to cook, and he will make a couple dishes and you can eat what you want.

I then moved in with a guy from Delhi, and we slept in the living room, while his collection of birds moved into his old bedroom.  So he lets them fly in the room and their cage doors are open and they have branches and such to land on.  His house has a zoo of insects outside of it.  One morning I looked at some leaf ornament he had and there was this huge bee (like the size of half a hand).  I looked at it for like a minute, and it didn't move so I said to myself, "Oh it's fake" and right when I thought that, it turned at me with blazing red eyes, and I ran away.  I was told it was a killer bee (not to be confused with killa beez).

My current place is right behind "Jaaga Creative Common Ground" (photo below), a giant art tent with many different leveled-floors that hosts talks, dances, exhibits on art, technology, anything, etc.  I live with the co-creator of Jaaga who runs an incubator for social media and technology start-ups, an American who is works at Babajob (an organization that helps low-income folks find jobs), and three Indian guys that design Facebook applications and other random technological thingy-ma-jiggers.

I think that is enough for an introduction.  In my next post, I will try to self-censor less and be more critical of what I have observed and experienced in India, especially given the disempowering nature of NGOs and the obsession with the Indian "middle class" and GDP growth and development at any cost, and the myth of volunteering and donating one's way to a better society.

But until then, All The Best (don't ever watch this Bollywood film; absolutely horrible).

Posted by Nikolai Smith

Mobilising for Livelihood : Women Farmers Demand Water

If I were to write an article, that would be the title. Which incidentally, I am supposed to be writing for my NGO. I have had nightmares about publishing this. Growing up I had no issues with the dark, just publishing.

My NGO JEEVIKA has been busy. This is a lie. We are always busy because we are a grassroots women’s rights and livelihood NGO in South 24 Parganas, West Bengal. Right now, as in February 2010, we are in the middle of a community mobilisation effort with the local Nahazari panchayat over water supply for SRI farmers and the general farmers in the area. Jeevika works in 37 villages in Bishnupur Block 1 & 2 and Mahestala. The area our campaign is located in is called Bishnupur 2, or specifically with the Nahazari Panchayat which covers 20,104 people as of 2001 Indian census. These 20,104 people are a part of 12 Gram Sangshads (or small village localities), of which many are subsistence-farmers who rely on rice as their staple food.

The irrigation canals that feed the fields have been overgrown with trees, weeds and garbage for the past 10 years and they don't have to be. If you clean them, baby Debashmita gets 5lbs fatter from the rice her parents can grow. I use hyperbole but here is an instance where the issue of food security is a largely political one, not one requiring modernization, funds, and technological fixes. Here, if the community mobilises, change will happen!

By the way, the villagers on their own locked up the Panchayat head in his office two weeks ago demanding that the money held for the past 10 years allocated for digging out the canals be released. Jeevika staff was not there.

Rather than write a long dry article with a title like "Mobilising for Livelihood…", here is a photo journal account of the incredible events taking shape in West Bengal. I hope Debashmita gets fat soon.

Nutshell

JEEVIKA started a sustainable agriculture project called SRI (Syst. of Rice Intensification http://www.sri-india.net) two years ago. It is a method of rice cultivation whose variations have been in practice for centuries but was recently packaged and scaled into a global movement. Today, it cuts 20-50% of water use, practices local seed collection, and raises the yield per plant from 2tons-per hector up to 15tons/ha. I’ll repeat that: 2t to 15t.

Jeevika has been in the community for 20 years and the same issue hampering food security consistently comes up. Folks say, "Sure we’ll try SRI, but we have no water."

Why no water?

According to villagers, the local Panchayat hasn't spent the 6-10 lakhs allocated to digging the irrigation canals, for the past 10 years.

Productivity for subsistence-farmers of the area that rely on a system of irrigation canals or khaals has gone way down. It is particularly hard on rice that is dependent on a specific amount of water for the paddy to form. Or else "cheetey-dhan" happens, or empty paddy.

WhatHaHappanWass..

After a series of community meetings with the Panchayat whose heads were consistently and conspicuously absent from, the lock-in happened in early February. This was without any JEEVIKA staff around. Long story short, rice season was gearing up and after hearing no word from the Panchayat, villagers took it on themselves to lock the head in his office after he failed to attend a community-meeting he'd during the Panchayat Mela (Festival). The villagers demanded that the cash for the canals be handed to JEEVIKA, so that the NGO could implement the digging campaign.

JEEVIKA was like, whoa, heck no.

We immediately started documenting the process and went with our community women to talk to the BDO, or Block Development Officer, the higher up from the Panchayat head. We started a petition and got nearly 300 (of the Panchayat's own constituents) and on February 5th we went to submit it as agreed:

*Though notice had been given, the BDO officer was not present

35 ladies and 5 men, all smiles on their way in to the BDO office.

Climbing the BDO office stairs.

Handing the petition over to the BDO-proxy. ~280 signatures.

The meeting begins. Proxy .. ‘Well, we can’t really do much.’

Getting the receipt for the petition submission.

Aroti-di. Look how determined they are about the canals and the absence of the BDO officer.

Okay, in between there was a veritable showdown. After getting the receipt for the petition, a few Panchayat members came down and called JEEVIKA names. These things clearly happen when emotions are high but the JEEVIKA ladies were on fire. The couple of men that were with our group were the ones placating or pulling the women and Panchayat members back. Anytime a direct action happens, the gendered lines become very stark. The Panchayat men were not going to hit a band of women, the women knew they were not going to be hit. When my NGO engages in other public actions, it is strategic that the oldest and friendliest women is sent to the police office to get permits. Strategic essentialism. Then there are spaces that require more critical dialogue to unravel like when women begin to conflate their personal histories and internalization of violence with activism. The danger is having anger or trauma be the primary motivation while reacting to police, politicians or other men that are symbolic of authority. Activism isn’t about vendettas.

Women in our community experience gendered violence in everyday life, both structural and in the form of domestic relationships. Gender and poverty act simultaneously to doubly exploit women. JEEVIKA navigates this not by making foot soldiers or setting up clashes with the state. Indoctrinating survivors of violence (which many women in the community we work with are) would be quite dangerous and manipulative. JEEVIKA holds year-long gender and patriarchy workshops along with all their programming that take a holistic approach to analyzing these dynamics at play, both as lived on the body and the more theoretical-structural level.

Dolon (in purple) reminding everyone the importance of being strategic in order to get the canals dug in tim

Dolon (in purple) reminding everyone the importance of being strategic in order to get the canals dug in time.

Babies at the BDO. / Example of an unmaintained canal or KHAAL. That's supposed to be water feeding the fields.

Results

The BDO officer was missing. His proxy and Panchayat cohorts received the petition, told us they couldn't do much, and that we should get an engineer to see the canals. Then one Panchayat member called JEEVIKA thieves. JEEVIKA women got really riled, some of them took it so personally that what resulted was a face off between lady farmers and 3 Panchayat members and the BDO-proxy.... who by the way, ended up leaving work early in an auto...

The Canals

Work has already started in terms of the canal digging and we are going to bring in an engineer indeed. Now that community pressure is at a high, they'll most likely release the rest of the money. The plan is to have the canals dug before the rice is affected.

Target, strategize, mobilize.

----- supplementary background ----

About Rice (The Context)

Rice is the staple food for subsistence farmers in the subcontinent. The SRI programme takes a lot of initial groundwork to convince (or incentivize as per other models) farmers to implement. Essentially, NGOs and environmental/livelihood groups come in and tell the farmer to stop and reverse the techniques they have been using for centuries. CENTURIES! Not just this, but to experiment with their staple crop.

JEEVIKA is a grassroots organization. It has been around for 20 years. The groundwork for the canal digging campaign began through the conversations we had with farmers about SRI. We began with community surveys to see if there was interest in the programme. Then we began our official SRI initiative through discussion with farmers (lady farmers!). Out of this grew the canal digging campaign. Once the canals are dug, both SRI as well as any farmer in our area will be able to have an incredible leg up in ensuring food security.

The following are photos of the regular SRI initiative from which the foundations for the canals digging campaign began.

Dolon (the NGO as.dir/my boss) hanging out during seed distribution

Incentivizing SRI: Seeds in the immediate market folks buy from vary in quality. One thing we do is go straight to the local seed dist. company and do some quality check ourselves.  Which is why my "office/desk” has been occupied for the past 2 month. Ha.

I don’t know everyone’s name. I know a lot of people who do gender training because, well, I can add to it. SRI is something entirely different. I plug-in for strategy, documentation and MIS ect. & evidently publishing.

We were distributing seeds and filling in our "registration" and MIS (to chart the progress of the paddy ect).

I hate taking photos without being asked to in fear to reproducing the National Geographic aesthetic. These photos are screen captures from a film we are shooting documenting JEEVIKA’s SRI programme to show for rural outreach next season.

ah yes yes, potash and boron says Raticanta-da.. yes, yes

Raticanda who is fulltime staff was a farmer and Aroti-di, Chobi-di and Chandana-di are project staff and also farmers. In other words, they plant what they eat for lunch. Depending on how the KHAAL digging campaign goes, hopefully these ladies will try SRI on their plots for another year.

Nafisa Ferdous is working at Jeevika Development Society with a rural women-owned microfinance federation and SRI agriculture in West Bengal.  For more information on Jeevika's activities or Nafisa's projects email her at NafisaFerdous@gmail.com

Seva Mandir

I’m the kind of person that likes to be an active member of my community, wherever or for however long I find myself there. Engaging in community activities is a great way to get to know the place and the people where you live and to satisfy one’s sense of giving. My first few months at Seva Mandir had me working very long hours ensconced in collecting and crunching statistical data, so getting out and meeting my NGO neighbors in my free time also served to keep me sane.

I was surprised to find a plethora of organizations working here in Udaipur and it was not difficult to find a number of activities and projects to sink my free-time teeth into.

Feasting Ethically

In late November I had the privilege of participating in an Ethical Feast. Organized by a collective of local “back to the land” focused NGOs, the week-long series of events were centered on a celebration of local food traditions and an open investigation of food security. Limited by my work schedule, I was only able to join one of the week’s many events: an evening of feasting on traditional foods that were both grown exclusively within the host village, as well as prepared by village cooks.

The event opened with a special puja honoring the intention of the event and all those that made the meal possible (the local organizers, volunteers, farmers, and cooks) while blessing the coming year’s harvest. By night’s end, close to 600 people had strolled through the huge tent to eat a delicious meal, (prepared in enormous pit-fired pots and served on traditional leaf plates), and to enjoy a cultural program of play-acting, singing, and dancing. Those of us lucky enough to have beds under the tent that night were serenaded through the night by the spiritually musical expressions of the area’s sadhus.

The following day was packed with visits to a local organic farm, an organic farming education center, a local potter, lunch with Jhadol’s Maharana (former king of the region), and a gorgeous sunset at a newly built eco-tourism resort.

Creative Activism

Just down the street from my office and home is one of my favorite development organizations, Shikshantar, ‘The People’s Institute for Rethinking Education and Development’. Refusing to call themselves an NGO, Shikshantar is a collective of highly-motivated people from all walks of life who work together on a number of interesting projects. Together they focus on living simply; reducing and recycling waste; supporting local food systems and encouraging the production of traditional foods; healthy eating; alternative energy and transportation; and the like – all through a highly-participatory, bottom-up approach. The first time I met their Coordinator / Co-Founder (he would never give himself the title of ‘Director’ and likely prefers just to be called a Learning Activist), Manish Jain, he explained to me that Shikshantar only works on projects that people are interested in starting and running themselves, meaning that most of their work is essentially requested of them by the community rather than the organization identifying needs and consequently initiating projects.

Over the last five months, I have joined the folks at Shikshantar in a number of projects and events, most notably:

• A bicycle rally to raise awareness and interest in using bicycling as a more environmentally, healthy means of transportation: close to 100 of us biked around the city, stopping traffic every so often for street performances messaging the environment and healthy living alternatives.

A Green Theatre Festival: a week-long series of environmentally-focused performances of theatre, dance, music, and poetry held in 4 different residential neighborhoods throughout Udaipur. Good friends and fellow Seva volunteers even wrote and performed a half-Hindi/English song about their love and admiration for Mother Nature – they were a real hit with the kids!

• Various speakers: Sadly, upon my arrival to town I had just missed Helena Norberg-Hodge, Founder and Director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture whose best known, perhaps, for her work in Ladakh. I was, however, able to meet and interact with the L.A.-based Dervaes Family of the Homegrown Revolution fame; and the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Ecoliteracy, Zenobia Barlow.
• And a few thought-provoking films: The Story of Stuff and Addicted to Plastic.

Dog Whispering

Like much of India, there is no shortage of street dogs in Udaipur – many of which have become my friends. This, as you can possibly imagine, comes at the unabashed shock and amusement of many a neighbor and passer-by. The crowd was especially large the day that I stopped in the street to love one of my (many) favorites who feeds on the community dumpster down my street. I had been energetically petting her when a motion in my periphery lifted my eyes in time to see not only 4 stranger dogs approaching for their turn, but also one of the dumpster cows! It never ceases to amaze me when dogs I have never met before come lovingly running up to me, somehow intuitively knowing that I’m just that kind of girl.

 

It didn’t take the animal lover in me long to hear about Animal Aid Unlimited, a much-needed animal hospital and shelter on the outskirts of Udaipur. The 8-year organization was started by two foreigners and is now operated by both Indians and foreigners, professionals and volunteers. It serves as the only such facility in a dense urban area with a severely-lacking garbage collection system, the ubiquitous cultural tolerance of street animals, and therefore a high ownerless animal population. Animal Aid’s purpose is to “both bring relief to suffering animals, and to awaken compassion among people” and they are refuge and healers to street dogs with any number of ailments, mistreated or injured donkeys, and cows, most of which suffer the gastro-effects of plastic-laced dumpster dining.

My first visit to Animal Aid’s facility was on the back of my motorcycle, carrying one of our street dogs who had turned up with a seemingly-overnight severe attack of mange (a disease caused by parasitic mites who eat away their host’s skin). We were able to find a space for him in the mange pens and after a few weeks of fabulous care, including mange shots and healthy meals, he happily returned home well on his way to recovery and clearly appreciative of being given the chance at survival.

During one of my visits, I had occasion to strike up a conversation with Julie, a Canadian volunteer of three years. The facility had decided to help their recent budget crunch by growing fields of high-nutrient grass for their donkeys and cows. Julie and her husband were disturbed to see the flood irrigation method in use by the facilities manager and thought there must be a better, more water-conscious method available. I was able to connect them with staff of our Natural Resources Development Unit of Seva Mandir (the unit in which I am based) who is now working with them to create a drip-irrigation plan that includes applying for federal assistance to offset some of the upfront costs. Considering the recent financial struggles of the organization, this is a welcomed, exciting relief.

That being said, if you happen to be an animal lover like me and are looking for a good, effective place to put up some good ‘ole tax deductible dollars (rupees, or any other currency of your choice) towards a reputable and effective organization – consider Animal Aid. I am extraordinarily impressed with their facility, care, and scope. You can be assured that your money will be put to excellent use and many an animal life would be saved. Thanks!

Jenny Becksted is based in Udaipur (Rajasthan) with Seva Mandir's Natural Resources Development Unit. As her role in a research project looking at the status and use of Common Lands in Rajasthan is currently on hold, she is excited to get back into clean water projects. She will also begin delving into the world of applied alternative energy technologies.

Spare Some Change

When my grandmother tells me stories about her life, she reiterates: "The biggest curse is to live in a time of change." I've always understood my grandmother's aversion to change as a product of her always-changing life: she has survived the times of Hitler and Stalin, from failing Five Year Plans to Yeltsin's inappropriate antics to Putin's economical victories at the expense of civil rights.  My life, too, has not been stagnant: the fall of Communism, the trans-Atlantic move to America, my life in Texas and Chicago, and the fifteen pages of entry and departure stamps in my passport all point to an inconstant existence. Yet for me, change has always meant progress.

Transplanted from one of our city’s most prestigious lyceums in Russia to a school deemed “academically unacceptable” by the state of Texas, differences in educational systems were highlighted for me since childhood. During my undergraduate career, I explored the schools and administrative policies in Chicago, Texas, Ghana, and post-Soviet Russia. All had worked to battle the same problems: of gender bias, curricula choices, teacher quality, funding – in isolation. To me, it has always been strange that educators are so reluctant to learn from each other. As India was amidst many fascinating reforms and processes of decentralization in education, I decided to welcome another change in my life and set off for the subcontinent.

When I arrived at the Rishi Valley Institute of Educational Resources (RIVER) in rural Andhra Pradesh, I expected a challenging and stimulating work environment. Being used to the fact that traditional educational methods have not been radically renewed in hundreds of years, despite the constant rhetoric of reform, I had no expectations of seeing a paradigm shift in the world of education. However, unlike my grandmother, the Raos, a power-couple who invented the innovative multi-grade multi-level methodology used by RIVER, as well as who currently run the organization, strove for change. They saw around them under-appreciated land, frightened and apathetic students, and teachers lacking the tools to be effective in the classroom. And they dedicated their lives to change this reality.

The multi-grade multi-level (MGML) methodology fostered by RIVER is complex and multi-faceted. It is a student-centered model, where children can learn at their own pace. To describe it simply, each village school (RIVER runs 12 satellite schools) is established by the rural community to house around 40 children in grades one through five. All are taught by a single teacher in a one-room school. Currently, there are three subjects taught: Telugu, maths, and environmental science. The curriculum is structured around a single “learning ladder” made up of many steps. A collection of steps make up a “milestone,” each with its own learning objective. Each step, denoted by a logo (for example, “rabbit”) and a number, matches up with an activity laid out on an “activity card” which can be easily found by the corresponding logo and number. Students find their place on the ladder, locate the corresponding card, and quickly get to work. The classroom is filled with happy, interested students, and the teacher spends her/his time on facilitating the learning of all students.

There are many nuances to the methodology. There is grouping and activity type; there is high community involvement, women’s empowerment, adult literacy, a health care component, land reforestation, and local arts, just to name a few. It is a true paradigm shift in the classroom, and it has great potential. Furthermore, the Institute is a proponent of collaboration in education and readily trains teachers and policy-makers from all over the world to trans-create MGML into their own local contexts and languages. The beauty of the program is that while the methodology gets exported, the content stays local, as each party adopting the program designs their own lesson plans to be immediately relevant to the students’ surroundings. Currently, over 16 Indian states, as well as Nepal, Germany, and Ethiopia, use RIVER’s methodology.

Yet, change doesn’t stop there. Each year, RIVER asks teachers to re-evaluate the curriculum to ensure that all cards are relevant to the children’s learning. The Institute takes tips from other states and nations using the methodology to improve best practices. Another big transformation to take place next year is the addition of English as a Second Language classes in RIVER schools. Thus, my ten months in India are spent assisting in the creation of materials to teach English to third and fourth grade children using MGML methodology. The journey hasn’t been easy. But, then again, change never is. We have struggled with vowel sounds, timing, teacher training, and thousands of other minute details. But we have also learned so much: about just how much our students can do despite the nonsensical structure of the English alphabet, about how fast our teachers can learn despite their already heavy workload, and about how passionate we all are to bring a much-needed change to education despite all the obstacles that stand in our way.

In my short four and some months at Rishi Valley, I have learned much about myself. I have gained a number of fantastic friendships that will last for years to come. And I have decided that when I grow old and share stories with my grandchildren, I will never fear the transformations in life. Instead, I'd like to point to the history books and say, “See how much has changed? See how far we’ve come? I was a part of that.”

All of the rural students marching in a procession for Sports Day.

 

Some girls from our satellite schools enjoying Pongal celebrations.

 

Children dancing for Sports Day Opening Ceremony.

Posted by Tatiana Rostovtseva