Pro what?

"There is something about reproductive health - maybe the sex part - that makes some Americans froth and go crazy. We see it in the opposition to condoms to curb AIDS in Africa and in the insistence on abstinence-only sex education in American classrooms (one reason American teenage pregnancy rates are more than double those in Canada). Retrograde decisions on reproductive health are reached in conference rooms in Washington, but I've seen how they play out in African villages. A young woman lies in a hut, bleeding to death or swollen by infection, as untrained midwives offer her water or herbs. Her husband and children wait anxiously outside the hut, their faces frozen and perspiring as her groans weaken."

Cause and effect. Public policy and the challenges. Read the whole article here

Uhh Yes!

I was extremely fortunate on Saturday to attend a panel discussion organised by the Brookings Institution: a leading policy think tank based out of the US. The discussion happened to be on health care in India and related interventions to make decent quality health care available to larger sections of India's populace. In addition to the fact that I was representing my organisation there, I was pretty excited because one of the panellists was Nachiket Mor. Mr. Mor happens to lead ICICI Foundation prior to his role as a board member of ICICI Bank, India's 2nd largest financial entity. His clarity of thought, articulation and vision were, simply put awe inspiring. It's brushes with folks like him that really drive me on.

But that was just the half of it. Being a guest at the event, I was being introduced by our host from Brookings to various people in the room until she told me "Oh I also want Strobe to meet with you" and before I knew it I was shaking Strobe Talbott's hand and telling him about my organisation. It was a little overwhelming to meet with someone who's shaped policy the way he probably has done and I managed to gasp out somewhere in our 2 minute conversation that it was indeed a great honour to have met him. Mr. Talbott now heads the Brookings Institution and they were here on a visit to meet with Industry and Government. Their subsequent stop (after Bangalore) was to meet with Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Hmm :-) As far as building aspirations go, such interactions are very special and being in a small discussion group with folks like Mr. Mor and Mr. Talbott pretty much is the icing on any cake. What was embarrasingly disappointing to see was when Mr. Talbott was being interviewed by NDTV, instead of ascertaining his reasons for being in India and the work Brookings is doing here, among the half dozen other childish questions he was asked "Are General Musharraf's days numbered?" to which he answered a very sarcastic "uhh...yes!"

Running down a dream

Update - January 14, '08

As of today, my friends have contributed a total of Rs. 1,53,000 or $3825 USD! I have now revised my target to try and raise Rs. 200,000 or $5000 USD in total!

The list of contributors so far is as follows:

1. Aakash
   
2. Abhinav
3. Anirban
4. Babitha
   
5. Dhanur
6. Gonçalo & Andreia
7. Indranil
   
8. Kaushik
9. Kiran
10. Kritika
11. Mahesh
12. Naaz
13. Niharika
14. Ronald
15. Sameer
16. Sidhartha V
17. Surya

---------------------------

I personally know 3 very special kids: Pavitra, Prem and Hamsa.

Pavitra aged 16 is the only bread winner in her family. She is confident, independent, expertly juggles her 12th standard classes and a job with an NGO as a program assistant. The money she earns allows her to send her younger sister to school and feed her Mom and Dad who is indisposed. Her dream is to build an organization that will go on to help more kids who were in her position.

Prem came from a small village in Karnataka. He could barely speak any English and had little idea about life's choices. Today he is 17 and is doing his diploma in instrumentation engineering. He feels empowered because he was able to build his self confidence through a program that helped him improve his communication skills, work place etiquette and computer skills. He wants a job soon to send money back to improve his village and he's sure of landing one next year.

Hamsa is a shy 18 year old boy...Hamsa dropped out from school and came away to a shelter home because of complications in his household. Before that, he spent time on the streets and couldn't understand what to do with his life. Today he is a first class goal keeper in a hockey program and is responsible and smart as an admin assistant with an NGO he works with.

All these children would probably not be where they are today had it not been for an organization that helps support them ...and gives them a chance. That's all these children really need. And that's what this mail is about.

I am soon going to be making what is now my annual pilgrimage to Bombay and this time I am running the half marathon ( 21 Kms). I hope to do this in a time under 2 hours and I've been working hard over the last 8 weeks to make this happen.

What is driving me to train for this event and put in 40 kms of running a week is not just the challenge of endurance however. Like marathons everywhere the Mumbai Marathon too is a huge charity fund raiser and I am also running to raise money for a couple of charities I have been closely associated with for the last few years. Charities that take care of kids like Pavitra, Hamsa and Prem and give them a chance to make something out of their lives. The practice of raising money through your run at a marathon is a world wide practice and every year, millions of dollars are raised by individuals whose runs are supported by friends, family and well wishers such as yourself.

My intent is to raise Rs. 1 Lakh or $2500 USD through my run at the Mumbai Marathon. This money will go towards two organizations I am associated with. Both these organizations are headed by inspiring people and my interaction with them over the last couple of years is what triggered my move to work full time on social causes. The organizations are Dream A Dream and Atma, Mumbai. You can read more about them at these links: http://www.dreamadream.org and http://www.atmamumbai.org

The important thing here is for us to know that all of us needn't devote our lives to social causes. There are many young, smart and dedicated people already doing this and if we can part with a small bit of our wealth and contribute this to the work these people are already doing, we will do our bit to ensure a more equitable, egalitarian society. The cynics may scoff but I truly believe if each and every one of us does our bit, thousands of young people who would otherwise not have any hope at all would receive a little ray of light from which they can build their lives.

I hope you will contribute toward my cause and my dream. You can do so easily by visiting this link and making an online donation:

http://www.giveindia.org/give/pledgepage/abhi

If you want to write out a cheque instead, email me and I will let you know how you can do this.

No amount is too small. You can contribute as little as Rs. 500 or as much as Rs. 25,000. Its up to you. If you want to contribute and don't have an Indian bank account or Indian credit card, again get in touch with me and we'll figure out a way. Just know that what ever the amount, you're helping change a young person's life forever. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Challenge

I've been talking about this for over a year now and it looks like I'm finally giving it an earnest shot. My dream of running a full marathon will remain just that for now: a dream. However, I am trying to get half way there by running the half marathon in Bombay. January is not so far away and the training routines, diet advice, injury prevention methods and general discipline and assimilation of information is overwhelming.

Daunting. That's the word....daunting. I have another 2 months and 2 weeks to go. I don't doubt that I will get over that finish line...but I am determined to do it in a way where I won't let myself down doing it. Staggering over the finish in 3 1/2 hours is not something I want to do...what the final time will be only time will tell. But what is most exciting...nerve tingling...adrenaline pumping about this whole thing is the challenge. The sheer challenge of pushing yourself to the limit. And then beyond. Like in cricket, this feeling is unparalleled.

On the bright side, I am using this run (like I did last year) to raise money for 2 charities that work with marginalized and disadvantaged children in Bangalore and Bombay. Dream A Dream and Atma, Mumbai. Both are organizations headed by inspiring and incredible people and my aim is to raise 100,000 rupees or $2500 USD in total through this effort. And yes you can contribute too. I'll put up details on how you can contribute on this blog soon. Meanwhile, if you have any words of wisdom on how to finish a half marathon, do tell.

No way out

Two instances I encountered yesterday made a connection with some of the realities that confront me through the work I do: the first was a column in Mint by Ramesh Ramanathan where he eloquently describes his encounter with an Indian youth whose story is similar to maybe tens of thousands of other young people who come to Bombay to make a living. In this case, the youth was a taxi driver with limited skills.

The second instance was a Bollywood movie I saw last night where a young girl from a small town comes to Bombay to make a living, realizes she doesn't have any skills or education required to find even the most basic of jobs and ends up becoming a call girl. The portrayal of the call girl in the movie is a glamorous, high flying "escort" version which is probably not true for 99% of the girls who end up as prostitutes in big cities.

The commonality in both instances is that a young person ( and there are around 200 million of them in India today and increasing) is unable to illustrate ambitions and dreams as in the case of the young taxi driver or is forced into prostitution as in the case of the girl in the movie, primarily because there is no framework for either of them to cash in on the opportunities to create wealth for themselves that exist in India today.

The example of the call girl was much too close to reality for comfort. There have been times when I've interacted with girls who have received timely interventions and it left me more than slightly shaken as to their plight. Similarly, on an almost daily basis I see so many young people earning far below what they could be, only because they lack one or two critical skills that are the need of today's private enterprise. And this reinforces the importance of employable skills training and life skills training for youth, especially those at risk. I don't intend getting into a thesis on my work but despite the great Bollywood-Yash Raj combo, the veneer of fantasy suffered a slight crack as fantasy inevitably does when confronted with cold, hard reality.

Quid pro quo

There is a deep seated sense of mistrust on either side of the fence that separates non profits from profit making entities. Non profits in India are largely and not inaccurately viewed as anti - capitalist organizations who, while working to remedy a social ill, also go about denouncing those making perfectly legal money off society. "Unprofessional" is a word often ascribed to non profits in this country, again not without reason.

Corporations are perceived as large, sinister behemoths; looking at global domination and promoting conformity consumerism (read greed) and sloth, whilst also claiming to care about the community in which they operate. My interactions over the last year in circles of activists young and old, non profit trustees and policy workshops bears out that this view of corporations is widely held to be true.

There is of course no black and white here. Both the opinions are true and false and yet having dealt with and in the corporate world for several years, I found that companies are more malleable when it comes to subscribing to views of non profits or understanding why a certain social problem occurs or even why non profits display some of the idiosyncrasies they do. This display of intellectual honesty is not something I've often encountered in the non profit world, with an almost militant anti capitalist attitude at most times.

In recent times, there is a strong push toward the mantra of public - private - non profit partnerships. While there is enough doubt for the very existence of this kind of partnership, it is one of the solutions that seems to be working, especially in countries with an apathetic political machinery. Companies and non profits are working together more than ever before and yet the feeling from the smaller non profits is still unilateral, "companies are here to fulfil their agenda, pay lip service to scoreboard items decided in far away board rooms and eventually, screw us over and leave"

Not far from the truth honestly. The small non profit I've been involved with for the last year experienced this recently. Although our "loss" in actual terms was almost negligible, the hit that our belief system took has been colossal. We conducted a couple of small activities with SAP Labs, a supposedly reputed multi national corporation with a significant presence in India. These activities were outings and workshops conducted with SAP employees and a group of disadvantaged children we work with and were conducted in December 2006 or early 2007. Obviously these cost money and we paid for them with the explicit understanding that SAP would reimburse to the full. The amount was embarrassingly paltry: a meagre $300 USD. Through 10 months of follow ups and email reminders we were told there were "vendor" related payment complications and finally SAP asked us today to write off this amount citing reasons that can best and most succinctly be described as bullshit.

I really don't care about the money here. What is excruciatingly painful about this situation is that my organization will never recommend this company to any other non profit to work with, will always view any genuine programs of this company with distrust and worst of all may become even more stand-offish when working with corporations. Personally, I'm quite appalled that something like this has happened but it only goes to show that if companies pay mere lip service to community engagement and hold "volunteer week" once a year, you'll be found out pretty soon for what you really are.

Resolve

Inspiration comes in different forms to us all: meeting people, watching a movie, hearing music; it could be as intense as a conversation with the divine or as simple as a conversation over the phone.

I'm going to give something a little crazy a shot. I participated in the Mumbai marathon last year in the 6 km run. I ran for charity and managed to raise Rs. 45,000 or $1100 USD. The marathon in 2008 is again in January and this time I want to attempt two things that border the unlikely: I want to run 42 Kms and while attempting to do so I want to raise at least Rs. 1 Lac or $ 2200 USD for charity. I intend this money going to 2 organizations, one in Bangalore and one in Mumbai. I'll put up a more permanent news ticker with information on the charities in this space soon.

Taking what you get

I am no guru but I have spent a fair amount of time in my professional life talking to companies in India & Western Europe on issues of corporate responsibility, sustainability and their perception on what a company's role can & should be when it comes to engaging with the community in which they operate.

I've come across varying opinions; some inspiring, some practical & some appalling. One common thread across all these meetings & conversations has been the fact that the companies that are serious about sustainability have the right frameworks, talented & passionate people heading these initiatives and most importantly the complete backing of management & resources to carry out engagement programs.

The Tata Group & Godrej Industries made a huge impression on me very early on. As an 18 year old AIESEC member, one would hear stories of how Ratan Tata knew more about AIESEC than we ourselves did or how Adi Godrej's door was always open for AIESEC to meet for assistance or consultation. Usually, these stories rarely bear themselves out but 3 years later, meeting these two gents and seeing for myself repeatedly that the tales were actually true made me a believer that it was possible to be ethical, socially conscious, philantrophic & still do enough to keep your shareholders happy. Indeed the characteristics I just mentioned became as important to these shareholders as profit did. Astounding. This was my first interaction & exposure to how a company viewed the now threadbare acronym that is CSR.

Just as well because I always revert to those experiences when cynicism takes over in the present day. Having interacted with several companies recently its equally astounding to see the callousness with which engaging with the community is viewed. At best, engagement is sought but on terms that would be unacceptable in a commercial agreement; at worst it is a completely public relations driven effort, short term and without any overall strategic objective. I have always believed that engaging with the community in which any company operates should be one of the most important strategic goals. Creating an ethical & socially aware brand only leads to brighter people wanting to join or stay longer with the organization. This is the basic premise on which many of AIESEC's corporate partners work, which is why they are so successful in hiring & retaining AIESEC's brightest.

It will take many years before Corporate India & indeed global corporations reach this stage of thought and until then we'll just have to grin & bear it because the reality that money does grow on trees requires a leap of imagination we aren't yet ready to make.

We are like this only

My Government is totally against imparting sex education. The Government is against aping Western culture in the school syllabus. Sex education does not go well with our country's culture and traditions

And since I hadn't ground my teeth in frustration for a couple of days, our beloved, charismatic & iconic Chief Minister Mr. H.D Kumaraswamy had the above to say yesterday as a reaction to the central Government's directive to impart sex education to school children. I didn't vote for the gent mainly because I wasn't in the city then and am not likely to vote for him or the travesty to democracy that his coalition represents, in the future. And if we were to trace back to how the honorable gent came to power, we will see that it really is HIS government and not the people's.

But that's besides the point. Obviously Mr. HDK is oblivious to 1.2 billion people living in the same country he does, not to mention Khajuraho or Bollywood. And of course he doesn't read...I mean the Times of India that is. So we are all children of God and were brought into this world by way of immaculate conceptions or severe "yajnas" (rituals) & penances performed before Agni, Vishnu, Shiva and the hundreds of other Hindu gods. How dare you say we have sex to procreate??! Preposterous...

And interestingly...Mallya Aditi Int'l school ( an ultra chic premier unaffordable-for-most institution) offers sex education as part of an integrated life skills curriculum that includes conflict management, health & hygiene. The divide is only on the increase & I can feel but pity for some poor (literally) kid from a government school who'll contract AIDS because he or she had no idea what a condom was. I think its time to see that "free hugs" video again, dream sweet Netherlands dreams and go to sleep.

Topics

I have steadfastly maintained not to write about my work on any weblog. However, that is proving increasingly difficult because almost all that I term as work now is of consequence to the society I live in. I don't know of any section of society that is not in some way impacted by the issues & problems that form a part of what I do. It would I think be of more interest to the general public when compared with washing machines, microwave models or the hottest new athlete on the block.

What I am apprehensive about is sounding vitriolic & cynical but I will temper those & be as objective & ''big picture'' like when I can.