| AID-India Conference 99, Chennai |
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| AID India & the AID Plan | ||||
| Mohan Bhagat & Ravi Kuchimanchi | ||||
| THE AID PLAN ADOPTED in the All-Chapters Meet of May 1997 called
for three levels of involvement in development work in India. Till
then our typical mode was to review a proposal for a project of 1-2 years,
and if we felt the organisation was honest and the work was good, we would
fund it. Ideally we would also build the relationship through letter
writing and visiting but overall, this approach has its limits. The
idea of focussing on a project in one village or cluster of villages for
5-10 years appealed to a number of people and we decided to try to identify
groups and projects with this potential for longer term collaboration.
This would depend both on the NGO and our ability to spend time every year
visiting the village and getting directly involved in the work.
Last year Lodhar village in Kanpur became our first focus village. We have been involved in what is now the Lodhar school for 4 years, ever since AID volunteer Mahendra Verma returned to India and took up a faculty position in IIT Kanpur. There he got involved with the group Jagriti, which is inspired by the teachings of Vivekananda. Ravi spent a week there and saw how the school in Lodhar village has directly and indirectly contributed to the community in several ways. This is what we mean by holisitc development, not a school and a health program and a workshop on inter-caste unity and struggling for civil rights … but finding that all of these are implicated when any one of them is taken up seriously. You will see this in the history of AID’s involvement with Jagriti and what is now the Lodhar school. By the end of 1997 it became clear that Balaji, who had returned to work full time for village development, was getting significant training and field experience from Tamil Nadu Science Forum. AID-Chenna and Bangalore volunteers have also been involved in this. Similarly Ravi and Aravinda have sustained involvement with people’s movements especially the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Several people from various chapters are finding time for activities related to NBA and TNSF. So our AID-India group has declared these two as the Focus NGOs. These groups are chosen because of their affinity with AID’s philosophy of honesty and accountability. They are people’s movements, working for people’s participation in development and themselves comprising villagers in all aspects of the work. From these focus NGOs we expect focus villages to emerge. This is the direction AID-India is taking us in achieving the AID Plan. Along with Focus Villages, the plan envisioned Seed Villages, in which AID would work directly, relating to the people without the mediation of an NGO. Pushpa: I think that for achieving the plan, we have to reach out more to students who come to volunteer, as they may be from a village and they could be inspired to work at the level we are talking about. Also we need people who are local, more stable. Faculty like Mahendra are very important. Udaykumar: I think it is important to concentrate on geographic areas. We also need to ask, what do we want for the future, and have a visioning workshop, where we develop a roadmap to get there. Parameswara Rao: What if we gave a stipend to youth from cities to spend time in villages and implement their ideas? Abirami: I think that there is a demand for vocational activities in villages. Ramanjujam: If you can take up a cause in which you involve all AID volunteers in discussion, research and action – such as energy use, conservation, alternatives – then you can really work together and fight for the cause, because you will own it. Sanjay: I am not so confident of a scenario in which we will go to a place and do this, do that. I would stay somehwere for 2-3 years and only then think of what to do. There is a ghost of deprivation that always emerges – s/he has come back from the US to India – we have to shed this sense of deprivation. As Shubhamurthy said, we need to see out heritage, understand the movements, their international links. A good plan would be a 3-day workshop on movements and development trends. We need changes in attitude – for all, not only those who come from the US. It is very heartening to know that AID is not just a funding agency. Your being in the US is also an assett, you can give very vital support to movements in India. Pressurise ENRON, get information on the companies, research their activities. For example in Narmada, we have a kind of sahayog – people from Calcutta, Mumbai, everywhere, who help with hosting, legal work, etc. Srinivas: AID should conduct Environmental Impact Assessments, participate in public hearings. If AID volunteers have expertise in an area then they can also be part of such public processes. Sridhar: I am short-sighted so I look at the little picture. We can’t decide on a large scale. We can go to villages for one year without any agenda, and at the same time study the village from AID’s point of view. Sarath: We need a history of NGOs Parameswara Rao: Hasten slowly. Expose yourselves to villages for a year. Unlearn; then learn. Ramanujam: Many women around the world are coming up with simple ways that science and technology can make a difference, like the Mark III hand pump. A workshop with this theme would bring out a lot of directions in need of pursuing. Sridhar: We should link each US chapter with an Indian chapter. Anshu: Half the people in India earn les than $1/day – in the confessions session we talked about how our consumption contrasts with that. We need to develop a vision. Otherwise we may get caught up in doing whatever is easy to do rather than what needs to be done. We need to study a lot. |
| Some human beings
do not eat alone Not even when they get The sweet ambrosia of the gods. They have no anger in them. They fear the evil that others fear but never sleep over them Give their lives for honour will not touch a gift of whole worlds if tendered there is not faintness in their hearts and they do not strive for themselves. Because such beings are
Seen in office of Narmada Bachao Andolan, author unknown
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