Bringing donors and NGOs together
Kolkata | July – September 2014 `0/-
kolkatagives
Rajib Haldar talks about what makes CINI one of the most respected NGOs in Kolkata
Street Children get a home and school for free!
How the amazing Project
Rainbow spearheaded by Sister Cyril at Loreto Sealdah achieved what no school dared. Read the story of how she resolved to take as many children off the streets into the school… (Read the full story on page 8)
The doctor who does 800 free cataract operations a year
The remarkable story of
Dr Rajani Saraf and what inspires her to give of herself. She conducts a cataract operation every ten minutes. You apologise when you ask her for an hour of her time for an interview... (Read the full story on page 13)
“Sorry, Ms Khullar, we won’t be able to take your son in our school”
Noni Khullar, Principal,
Akshar, explains how that one line helped kickstart an educational movement for the specially-abled. It is probably the only school in the country where around… (Read the full story on page 20)
Manyavar is among India’s most prominent ethnic men’s wear brands. Producing a range of regal sherwanis, elegant kurtas and Indo-Western wear. With a capacity to produce over two million units of apparel per annum (highest for the category in the world). Now planning to expand from 350 to 600 global Exclusive Brand Outlets by 2015-16.
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“I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.” - Maya Angelou
“You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon will be too late.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Editorial
kolkatagives Volume One Edition 3 July-September 2014
Welcome to the third issue of Kolkata Gives! During Ramzaan, the Muslim month of fasting it becomes mandatory to disburse 2.5 per cent of net wealth to the poor. Being a practising Muslim, I have marveled at this institutionalised form of charity, which has not only taken away the ambiguity related to how much we should give but also when. However, it has often struck me as ironic that for a religion with such an institutionalised form of giving to also showcase some of the lowest percentages of literacy and healthcare provisions (and I am not even coming to community infrastructure, hygiene provisions etc.) among its practitioners. Perhaps people don’t give
as much as they should. Perhaps people give but not scientifically. People give but strictly within their subsects (where often the scope for spending is limited). People give directly to community agencies with no accountability of where the money was spent. Just work out the math as to what the aggregate cash could achieve: assuming that the community had even 10,000 members in a city with a net wealth of H50 lacs each capable of paying H125,000 as zakaat, the aggregate payout would be H125 cr. That’s a significant amount; it could fund
annual H10,000 scholarships of 100,000 Muslim students, which could be destiny-transforming for thousands of beneficiaries, lifting them out of lower middle-class mediocrity and poverty forever. Put aside H10 cr per annum for infrastructure – new schools and repairs for old ones in addition to new equipment and faculty. This allocation of H110 cr just where it is needed would make Muslims depend less on government schemes and more on their own, strengthening their own self-respect and bonding. Or turn to healthcare. After having allocated a sizable H110 cr in education (clearly the biggest allocation by far), one could spend the remaining H15 cr in public healthcare by building primary health care interfaces where they are most needed. Based on the Rural Health Care
Foundation model, it takes no more than H500,000 per annum in running expenses to run each centre. Even if a city like Kolkata were to commission 40 dispensaries providing free medical treatment, we would have expended no more than H2 cr, leaving us H13 cr to spend in addressing secondary health needs (surgery subsidisation etc.) on a case-tocase basis. If only Kolkata Muslims – and I count myself as one – can find the credible leadership to address this opportunity and keep politicians out, what a model this could be for communities across the world!
Mudar Patherya Editor and ruthless networker mudar@trisyscom.com
Editor: Mudar Patherya Team Kolkata Gives: • Pawan Agarwal • Saurav Dugar • Mukti Gupta • Anant Nevatia • Jyoti Sonthalia Tabloid supporters: RS Agarwal, Sanjay Agarwal, Bajranglal Bamalwa, RG Bansal, Piyush Bhagat, Manoj Bhutoria, Chittaranjan Choudhary, Ravindra Chamaria, Jayanta Chatterjee, Pradip Chopra, RS Goenka, Debanjan Mandal, Rajiv Mundra, Utsav Parekh, Siddharth Pasari, Pavan Poddar, Avik Saha, Ghanshyam Sarda and Pradip Sureka Core mission: To make good work fashionable. And in doing so, to move millions – people and resources. Editorial address: kolkatagives@gmail.com Postal address: 9 Elgin Road, 4th floor, Kolkata 700020 P: 40401030 | F: 40401040 W: www.kolkatagives.org Editorial support team: Trisys Communications Disclaimer: All rights reserved. Neither this newsletter nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored, distributed, adapted, translated or transmitted in any form or by any means or medium without prior permission of Kolkata Gives.
Case study
Heard of the millionaire couple who started a scholarship for CA students?
The interesting story of Harsh and Payal Hada They are convinced that since training courses in engineering and chartered accountancy are expensive, most families that cannot mobilise the sum compel their children to seek alternative (and low-paying) careers.
W
DC was a company that Harsh Hada and partners (Rahul Todi and Rahul Sharma) started, grew and sold to the Manpower Group. Hada selected to remain with the company as its Managing Director but there was a concurrent interest in investing in philanthropic initiatives where his intervention could help recipients graduate to the next league. Hada and his wife Payal are different from most philanthropists. They fund middle-class students with a family income of around H30,000 and intending to pursue careers in engineering and chartered accountancy.
Book Review: ‘Charity Case’ by Dan Pallotta years, charities have been forced to follow a rule book that doesn’t allow them to spend money on the things they need to achieve real change.”
Dan Pallotta’s book Charity Case: How the Nonprofit Community Can Stand Up For Itself and Really Change the World (2012) is the blueprint for a national leadership movement to transform the way people think about giving. Central to Pallotta’s argument is that “for hundreds of
3 Risk-taking in pur-
The separate rule book discriminates against the sector in five big areas:
suit of new donors: It’s okay for a big budget movie or new product to flop. But if a $5 million charity walk doesn’t show a 75% profit in the first year, then it’s considered a waste.
1 Compensation: The
4 Time horizon: Com-
for-profit sector pays people a competitive wage based on the value of what they produce but we don’t want people making money in charity. 2 Advertising and marketing: We let business advertise until the last dollar no longer produces any value, but charitable donations spent on advertising are not welcomed.
panies can go years without returning any money to investors in the interest of a long-term goal. But if a charity has a long-term goal that doesn’t show short-term results, then it’s scandalous. 5 Profit: Business can offer profits to attract investment capital but there’s no such vehicle for charity which leaves it starved for growth capital.
Pallotta argues that “people in our sector need to have courage” and that “we need a civil rights movement for charity – and this book is about how we start one.” Dan Pallotta is the inventor of the multi-day charity event industry (including the AIDS Rides and Breast Cancer 3-Days) that has cumulatively raised over $1.1 billion for critical social causes. Since then, he has authored several books and has become a voice for change in the non-profit sector. Source: This book review has been sourced from www. npengage.com. The book is available on www.amazon.com
Charity Case goes into detail around five key steps that should be taken: 1 Act as an anti-defamation league for the sector 2 Enlighten the public through paid advertising and media 3 Gather the best thinkers to design a national civil rights act for charity and social enterprise 4 Challenge unconstitu-
tional laws targeted at the sector 5
Organise ourselves, our friends, and colleagues
Charity Case says that in 2009, Save the Children spent $3.3 million on advertising. In 2010, Disney spent 582 times more than that on advertising or as Pallotta puts it more bluntly: “Save the Children 1. Entertain the Children 582.”
Publisher
Pages
Price
Jossey-Bass
256
J1,849
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Hada has perceived something else. Over the foreseeable future, some Nordic countries will be marked by a decline in their productive labour due to an ageing population and these countries will need to increasingly outsource engineering talent from other countries (including India). So Hada and his wife have set out to create as many engineering (or technical) graduates as possible, where a small cash assistance from their side can have a hydraulic impact. The Hadas have not totted up the big numbers as yet (around 300) for an initiative that began in 2010, but the initiative is growing. They provide funds to those students who seek to pursue careers in chartered accountancy, their focus being to fund those students doing their
graduation and simultaneously wanting to pursue a professional course. The Hadas screen prospective students through an innovative collaboration. In the last few years, they have entered into a tie-up with Sanmarg newspaper for eight, free quarter-page advertisements, in which they advertise for students intending to pursue engineering or technical courses. The last time they advertised, they got around 600 applicants, selected around 200 and screened down to 100.
finite sum of money at our disposal, we have selected to fund 50% of a deserving student’s fee with the objective to widen the number of beneficiaries and only in select cases funded the entire requirement,” explains Harsh.
Experis IT Pvt. Ltd. Block GP, Plot J3, Sector V, Salt Lake City, Kolkata 700 091 O: 033 30181111 E: office@wdc.in
Their most successful interventions? Read these cases Kiranmoni Debnath’s father struggled to make ends meet for a fourmember family that also comprised a physically-challenged sibling. Kiranmoni came to know about Hada’s Foundation through Sanmarg. The Hadas provided him with a scholarship. Kiranmoni stood first in each semester and landed a job with ITC (Foods Division) as a Manufacturing Executive! Debjyoti Burman of Maulana Azad Medical College (Delhi) came from a humble background but secured a rank of 5 in the All India Medical Entrance Examination. His Maulana Azad College fees was negligible but he could not fund the hostel accommodation of H3,000 a month. The Hadas funded his accommodation expenses in Delhi.
Their assistance is timely. “Over the last decade, there has been a sharp increase in the cost of technical education. Ironical, when you have a number of government institutions where the educational standard leaves a lot to be desired; on the other hand, you have select private institutions where the cost of education is so high that it is almost unaffordable for most middle-class students. This is where we come in. Due to the rising cost of education and a
Piyush Jaiswal is studying Architecture in the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Piyush got a bank loan for this course but was left with a deficit of H4 lacs. The Hadas helped Piyush bridge the gap and are confident that Piyush will soon emerge a qualified architect. Kriti Buchasia from Ranigunj relocated to Kolkata to pursue her graduation from St. Xavier’s College. She is supported by HPF. She enrolled for CA and CS, clearing both with exceptional results. She recently secured a job with Credit Suisse Bank in Pune with a starting salary of H7.2 lacs per year.
YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT the 13 THINGS TATA CANCER HOSPITAL IN kOLKATA for treating leukaemia costs anywhere around at H20 lac in most places; Tata Medical Centre it costs H12-14 lac. 3
Tata Cancer Hospital has been positioned as possibly the lowest-cost hospital of its standard in Kolkata. 1
Tata Medical Hospital (Mumbai) had a six-month waiting list of cancer patients; 40% were from Eastern India, which inspired the setting up of a 14-acre Tata Cancer Hospital in Kolkata. 2 The H370-cr Hospital has been commissioned to provide even a common man with worldclass treatment at an affordable cost; a bone marrow transplant
4 More than 30% of TCH cas-
es are subsidised, rising to 50 per cent of all paediatric cases. The gap between cost and what is donated by philanthropists is borne by the Tata Trust. 5
To address the inconvenience of relatives accompanying patients, Tata Medical Centre is building a H41-cr facility to accommodate nearly 500 rela-
tives of outstation patients at a near-free cost. 6 The Hospital has a dedicated team (based in Kolkata and Mumbai) whose sole objective is to mobilise donations. 7 Indian Oil funded the Hos-
pital with a contribution of H66 crore for Phase II; SBI provided H6 crore. 8 The 330,000 square feet facility is completely air-conditioned, including the general ward. The hospital has 110 fulltime doctors. It has recruited only B.Sc degree-holding nurses (280 of them) as against the prevailing industry practice of recruiting nurses with diplomas.
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This is the first hospital in Eastern India to provide post-surgery radioactive iodine treatment for thyroid cancer, complete with a radiation-proof room and toilets (with a separate septic tank and separate sewage line). 10 Most large hospitals pos-
sess a water reservoir of 3,0004,000 gallon capacity; TCH possesses two reservoirs of 200,000 gallons each and three sets of pumps. The generator can feed the hospital with electricity for four days in the event of an emergency. 11 The hospital started with 20
patients a day (OPD) in 2011; it now addresses more than 600;
it conducts 12-15 major surgeries a day across eight worldclass operation theatres. 12 TCH’s waiting list is more than two months; the hospital is adding 250 beds to its existing 160 beds. 13 TCH is investing in a two-
acre Research Centre (H200 cr) behind its premises, which could attract some of the best talent in the country.
www.tmckolkata.com
Tata Medical Centre 14 MAR (E-W), New Town, Rajarhat, Kolkata 700156 O: +91-7278020400 E: vr.ramanan@tmckolkata.com
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“The results of philanthropy are always beyond calculation.” - Miriam Beard
“Charity looks at the need and not at the cause.” - German Proverb
Saviour! Cover story
An interview with Rajib Haldar, Additional director, on just what makes CINI one of the most respected NGOs in Kolkata today called the daily clinic simply because we recognised that when you have a deep health issue, only an ongoing interface will help. So we created a daily clinic for children and weekly health check-ups for women and underprivileged children every Thursday (coinciding with the weekly market day) at our campus. Interestingly, the emphasis has been on preventive care (immunisation, nutrition counseling and health education). The effectiveness is reflected in our annual clinic attendance: 200,000-plus. That’s huge.
What makes CINI a respected NGO in Kolkata? In 1974, Father Henrichs conducted a survey, which identified high malnutrition in Thakurpukur. So he sent Pauline (Loreto nun-cum-nutritionist) to examine the problem. Pauline was confronted with a large number of mothers carrying sick children to her doorstep. This is what she resolved: ‘We should help treat the children, advise mothers to feed low-cost nutritious food and adopt hygienic practices.’ It is with a conclusion as simple as this, that Child In Need Institute was founded by Dr Samir Chaudhuri (paediatrician), Sister Pauline and Rev. Fr. John Henrichs. What did they do? They opened five clinics in Behala and Thakurpukur area.
What started as a gleam in the eyes of three individuals is now a non-profit social development institution that caters to more than 5 million people; what started out as a localised initiative now works in West Bengal (19 districts), Jharkhand (24 districts) and Chhattisgarh (18 districts); what started with healthcare has now extended to education, protection, health and nutrition. How did the movement grow? We diversified into various verticals. We provided emergency relief following natural disasters, widening our coverage across nutrition and health programmes, training more than 11,000 mothers. Our ‘1,000 days approach’ prevents and treats malnutrition forms in a coun-
try where around 46% children suffer from malnutrition. We worked at the home level, training mothers and family members to provide nutritious food and care to pregnant women and children below two years of age (when 80% brain development takes place) and in line with the saying that the first 1,000 days are the window which influence whether you will be an engineer or an IPS officer. Our frequent visits ensured exclusive breast feeding, immunisation, supplementation with home available foods from the sixth-month onwards and monitoring and promoting growth up to two years of age. How effective have you been? We have been practical in our approach. We started something
At some point, we extended beyond the hands-on-the-ground approach, drawing on our learnings and trying to influence policy so that more could benefit. We contributed in joint-policy and programme development efforts with the Government, NGOs, UN and other agencies (Planning Commission, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Indian Council of Medical Research) where we played the role of facilitators in fostering pilot, innovative, lowcost approaches that, if tested positively, could be adopted by the government as good practices and subsequently replicated. What kind of pilots? Take CINI, for instance. Kolkata is home to thousands of street children, many of whom push drugs or pickpocket. We noticed that a number of these children (between five to 15 years) loved their freedom; if we had to make ourselves heard, we would have to explore their world and listen to their stories. So we requested the railway authorities to provide us space where these children could sleep, eat and indulge in recreation. We were provided shelter and roundthe-clock security with a unique ‘walk-in-walk-out’ facility where
the children would decide how they wished to move ahead in their life. ‘Here we do what we want’, claim the children. Now these children only run the centre with the assistance of one teacher. Besides, CINI operates a national, 24-hour emergency phone outreach service for children in need of care and protection. Our child protection interventions cover more than 5,000 children with institution-based services and 21,500 children and other stakeholders through indirect services which are concentrated in red light areas, stations, villages and slums. A number of people are going to ask ‘So what is the success of an initiative like this?’ We have only to point to Sambhu, a 21-year-old father and husband. This is what he has had to say on a number of occasions: ‘I met my wife, who was an abandoned street child, thanks to CINI. I have a beautiful daughter Supriya and am now a carpenter. I earn well enough to support my family.’
At CINI, we work closely with the government. We would rather integrate than substitute government initiatives. Result? We were accorded Mother NGO status in reproductive and child health by the Government of India in 1998. This is how we work: suppose in a population of 10,000 you have 100 government locals. We train two of them, create a social map for them identifying the number of malnutrition cases. They create a community, monitoring the work through their panchayat. They educate people about various government schemes - for instance, a mother on getting registered gets a sum of H1,500 for ten months. Keeping a knowledge-based approach is important. People are unaware of a number of issues like pesticide contamination of food, on which we enhance awareness. What are your major challenges? One, resistance. We face resistance from villagers when our trainers discuss sexual health-related issues. But our reference point has always been villagers and slum dwellers. We have learnt to speak their language, are sensitive to their strengths and culture and this allowed us to extend beyond handouts and charity orientation to actual development. Gradually we have emerged as a ‘learning’ organisation, with our ears close to the ground, listen-
CINI’s focus areas
What is interesting is that each time our projects acquire scale, we spin it into an organisation (Sahay, Sanchar, Jeevika, CCRC, among others) with trained staff, assets and funding sources and play an advisory support role thereafter. In this manner, we are able to retain our focus and effectiveness.
Safe motherhood and child survival
Why is this work relevant to society? One in every three malnourished children in the world comes from India. Almost 48% of Indian children under the age of 5 are stunted. The social discrimination in distribution of food makes the girl child more malnutrition-vulnerable than boys (National Family Health Survey 3, 2005-2006).
Prevention and treatment of RTI/STI and gynaecological morbidities
Nutritional services for vulnerable groups Prevention and management of unwanted pregnancies Reproductive health services for adolescents
Gender relations and women’s empowerment Increasing male involvement Improving adolescent and youth (10-24 years) health
ing to the voices of the women, children and community. Two, trust. When we encountered the first signs of villager distrust, we replaced the traditional nurse’s dress with a sari. Our field execution has always been humane in approach rather than being mechanical. Through this simple yet sensitive touch, we evolved the nurse into a friend capable of inspiring a woman-to-woman trust and acceptability among the village mothers. From our optimism comes enthusiasm! Three, mindset. Another challenge is the mindset and unawareness. People don’t think malnutrition poses a threat to their health and by the time we can help it is too late. One of the symptoms of malnutrition is swollen legs. A lot of people are unaware that over-nutrition or obesity is also a form of malnutrition! In the 1970s, the bou ma in every household would eat last even during pregnancy. We aim to educate people that eating at regular intervals is necessary for healthy foetal growth. Four, consumerism. Everyone wants to feed the child Horlicks or Lactogen (status symbol) which could be unhealthy. The doctors promote it because of the commission they get from the consumer companies. A child should only be given breast milk for the first six months (only 46% are fed breast milk for the first six months in India, would you believe!). Five, operational structure. Brick-and-mortar organisations have a tendency to expand rather than build, centralise rather than decentralise. Measures have been taken to avoid growth beyond optimal efficiency. Today there are 3.5 million registered NGOs in India. I think of this as an ‘alternative livelihood’, which causes trust issues for donors. People don’t know which NGO to trust! So we invite people to scrutinise us! What are the areas in which you have succeeded? CINI has grown into a national organisation with a dedicated team of 1,291 professionals becoming the only organisation in India to earn the National Award in Child Welfare twice (1985 and 2004) from the Gov-
ernment of India. From serving 3,000 people initially, over a span of 40 years, CINI now caters to over five million people in West Bengal and Jharkhand. Five million! We support 120,000 mothers every single year. The result is that we have grown 140% in the last five years despite the economic slowdown! Can you please provide a reference to your principal donors? I am happy to state that we have inspired the trust of a number of national and international donors: WHO, World Bank, U.S. Embassy, Tata Iron and Steel Company, Selvel Advertising Pvt. Ltd., AFPRO, Global Health Council, Indian Statistical Institute, Institute of Child Health, (London), National Institute of Nutrition, Dept. of Relief and Social Welfare, Govt, Indian Council of Medical Research, Childline India Foundation, among others. How do you manage your costs? Miracles. There was a time when our salaries were so poor that we took home wheat and oil handed out as part of a ‘foodfor-work’ programme! In 1976, our accounts manager told us he did not have money to cover salaries by the 28th (a tradition we follow till date) which happened to be a Friday. We panicked. On Monday, the bank informed us that they could cover the salaries because of a transfer from a donor! We are not a temple or a missionary or a church. We are a professionally-managed organisation and that’s how we manage our costs because jaadu hai, technique hai lekin hamare paas paisa nahi! We don’t believe in being a pranti but a partner in the process of sustainable social development. In the 1970s, investing in such initiatives was a philanthropic daan, today it is a ‘right’. Around 60-70% funding comes from the government. We manage because our management structure is lean!
www.cini@cinindia.org
CINI Daulatpur, P.O. Pailan Via Joka, 24 Parganas (S) 700 104, West Bengal, India O: +91-33-24978192/8206 E: rajib@cinindia.org
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Where does a lady go when she is beaten at home? Inevitably a number of Kolkata’s victims of domestic violence turn to Anuradha Kapoor of Swayam
Y
ou are a married lady. Your husband beats you with a hockey stick. You keep quiet. A few days later, he beats you with his hands. You stay silent. Some days later, he takes your belongings and throws you out of the house. For a number of women in precisely this condition and nowhere to go, the first refuge is inevitably an assuming building in Deodar Street, Ballygunge. Over the years, Swayam, the Kolkata-based NGO, has created a distinctive recall for providing an open door to victims of domestic violence, no questions asked and no judgments pronounced. “Swayam is the first point of support for a number of women who have otherwise nowhere to go or are too embarrassed about going to their peers and friends,” explains Anuradha Kapoor, Director. “The result is that a number of battered women who come to us have lost their confidence to such an extent that they cannot even speak about this to someone…this is precisely the hopeless situation that Swayam addresses.” What is the Swayam brand that inspires women, who otherwise have no acquaintance with this NGO, select to turn to it for help? Over the years, the word has got around: At Swayam, you don’t need anybody’s reference to come here, if you wish to speak to someone about a problem, within minutes you have a trained counselor at your disposal, there is an assurance of complete anonymity that no word would ever get back to the victim’s family and there is a gradual confidence-building process that provides the victim the first indication that all is not over. The big question: How does Swayam transform what would appear to most as a hopeless re-
ality, to someone who can turn counselor in a few months and help others in distress? “The first ingredient is the empathy that we care. This is a place where we listen, where we sympathise, where we advise, where we empower and where we clearly focus on getting the victims back on their feet. So, we are more than just a temporary shoulder of support; we are sustainable driver of confidence.” And it is here that a number of Swayam’s competencies come into play. Over the years, this NGO has worked closely with legal experts and the police to understand the law through the written word and its local application – on what intervention will be the quickest to what will be the most enduring. Besides, Swayam has extended its service to designing a legal strategy to take the case to its logical conclusion to vocational training that can help a number of the victims become financially-independent. “We provide a solution,” says Kapoor. The big question is whether such an intervention actually works. Kapoor has no doubts that it does. She cites an instance. One, of a 20-year-old lady who was sexually harassed by her husband and assaulted by her in-laws. When seven months pregnant, she was kicked in her stomach by her husband. When hospitalised by her father, none from the in-law’s family came to see her. When her father brought her to Swayam, the lady was too shocked to speak. “We provided her with legal support, a job and the motivation to fight.”
www.swayam.info
Swayam 9/2B Deodar Street, Kolkata 700019, India O: 033-24863367/68/57 E: anu166@hotmail.com
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“No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.” - Calvin Coolidge
“The highest use of capital is not to make more money but to make money to do more for the betterment of life.” - Henry Ford
Shamlu Dudeja
Investigation
Lifting women out of poverty with kantha How one visionary helped a traditional craft find a modern audience camps, micro-finance loans for the purchase of computers or home construction/extension, primary education (with Pratham). As a result, kantha has evolved into a destiny-transformer.” The one area where most such well-intentioned pieces fail is front-end marketing. Dudeja does not market kantha within India; she has successfully created a niche for this product the world over. Dudeja travels annually to the US, carrying bags full of kantha work, which is then marketed across exhibitions across that country. “The focus is to go with a lot of material and come back with nothing, translating into attractive income for the rural women of Bengal.”
Shamlu Dudeja (right) with her S.H.E kantha team leaders
T
he ultimate poverty-buster would be something connecting poor rural women with some of the richest people in the world. If such a model could be explored, it would not only lift hundreds out of poverty; it would also end a centuries-old convention of treating women like doormats. If there is one reason why this has not been attempted on a mass scale is the perception that it can’t be done. That such a trade does not exist. That even if it does, the logistics of managing a number of women would be challenging. That even if the women could be networked, who is likely to market abroad? The amazing thing is that this has been done and most people haven’t even realised. Over the last couple of decades, Shamlu Dudeja has revived the age-old magic of kantha that
was once a part of the cultural heritage of rural Bengal, handed down from generation to generation with the embroiderer’s signature cleverly camouflaged in a corner. A kantha could be a gift for someone special – a newborn, a son-in-law being welcomed into the family, a guest of honour or an elder. And then the onslaught of block printing and mill-made blankets destroyed this tradition. Revival Until it took a lady married into Kolkata to learn this craft from a Bengali teacher and mother, see some Shantiniketan wall hangings, ask rural women to embroider some sarees for her and what started as an experiment with just five women, has now grown into a network of 1,000 women working for parttime (three hours a day) across the villages of West Bengal; what started as a focus on sarees has extended to salwar-kurtas, dupattas, bedspreads, cushion covers, curtain lengths, table linen and wall hangings.
The lady is Shamlu Dudeja. This is how she describes the initiative: “It would have been no point suggesting to rural women that they work full-time because they owned domestic responsibilities as well,” she says. “Kantha was best suited for a rural environment: jobs would be delivered to the residence and someone would collect after it was completed; housewives could invest three hours a day in their kantha responsibilities before returning to their household work; housewives would not need to invest in sewing machines because they would need to stitch by hand; housewives could train their daughters or mothers-in-law to do the same to enhance family incomes; the income per-square-inch from kantha was higher than what could be derived from usual garment stitching.” Enthusiasm When Dudeja would have explained this to someone a couple of decades ago, her logic could have been dismissed. But
the power of an idea backed enthusiastically can go a long way: S.H.E. her organisation, has grown to a network of more than 1,000 through an operating architecture of team leaders, junior team leaders and trainees. The designing capability is not centred but progressively dispersed across the women who study books and magazines for inspiration. This is now a movement that has extended across villages and regions (six centres in South 24 Parganas, Garia, Burdwan, Suri and Shantiniketan). Destiny transformer What makes the work of Dudeja’s NGO interesting is that the initiative can be described as not-for-profit and for-profit as well. “Our focus is to make a sustainable profit from marketing kantha pieces, which is then channelised into women’s welfare, so to this extent cannot be considered not-for-profit. Besides, what we have done is to make kantha a trigger for positive change, resulting in health
The result is that kantha is helping catalyse Bengal’s rural economy. For instance, team leader Sadhana Mondal lost her right arm when she was 12; her husband had polio. S.H.E., where she is now a team leader, helped transform her life; one of her sons is an engineer earning around H40,000 a month. “I took Sadhana and her son to Santa Fe (New Mexico) where she showcased kantha as an art form,” says Dudeja. “Quite unthinkable for most rural women, but it happened.”
US Secretary Hillary Clinton accepted a kantha panel gift from S.H.E. In turn, she purchased a Tagore portrait in kantha that was gifted to West Bengal’s Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee.
www.sheindia.com
Self Help Enterprise Malika’s Kantha Collection 4/1, Alipore Park Road Kolkata 700027, India O: +91-33-24797852/9002 E: malikakantha@gmail.com
What happens to vulnerable women in rural Bengal…
7
Salman the giver
...and what kind of NGOs bail them out This is Kalpana Sardar’s story.
This is Jharna Mondal’s story.
Kalpana Sardar (name changed) from Khariberia village was 13 when she was raped by her landlord. Her mother approached a panchayat member and political leader for salish (mutual settlement). The recommendation was that Kalpana accept cash, abort and relocate. The mother was single and a domestic servant; relocation would have affected her livelihood. Aborting in the third trimester could have been dangerous. Besides, the perpetrator denied the rape.
I took over my husband’s phuchka business after he passed away. I took a loan from Swayamsampurna to invest in my business aggregating H25,000, the second loan helping me stock raw materials for five months. In the mornings, I prepare phuchka while my son sells them. In the afternoons and the evenings, I sell the phuchkas myself while he is busy with other work. During afternoons, I sell aloo kabli, ghooghni and chana in front of the local school. I enjoy complete control over the profits made from my business. Apart from contributing to the family expenditure, I also invest in my son’s business. From the profits made from both these businesses, we have transformed our home. Now it has pucca walls instead of mud walls. The success of the enterprises has allowed me to purchase 10 cottahs of land.
How Jeevika supported: It stepped in to file a case against the landlord, who was arrested. Jeevika’s volunteer group (Alor Disha) addressed the legal aspects of Kalpana’s case. The culprit pleaded not guilty and applied for bail. A few days later, Kalpana was found unconscious and rushed to a Behala hospital where she lay unattended for hours because the doctor demanded to know where Kalpana’s ‘husband’ and mother were. When informed that Kalpana was a rape survivor, the doctor dismissed this as a ‘dirty case.’ As Kalpana’s case became critical, she was shifted to a government hospital and finally delivered after a caesarean operation. When she returned home with her son, the neighbours complained whenever the baby cried, store owners were reluctant to sell her canned milk and the landlord prohibited Kalpana and Swapna Sardar from using either the pond or the tap water. The next twist in the story: The rapist desired to marry Kalpana (to pressurise her and drop the case) with village support. Kalpana refused; she was physically assaulted, this time beaten by the defendant’s father, brother and cousin. If this was not enough, Kalpana’s married sisters accused her of ruining their social standing. In November 2011, Kalpana finally turned to Jeevika with her three-year-old child complaining that her mother and elder brother had beaten and driven her from home. And from this point started Jeevika’s engagement. The NGO supported, counseled, protected, coordinated and motivated. The result was that Kalpana was produced in front of the Child Welfare Committee of South 24 Parganas, which ruled an ‘order of restoration of a child to an institution’ in her favour following which she was admitted to the Shelter Home of Haripur Amra Sabai Unnayan Samiti for seven months. Then, surprise of surprises… her mother wanted to take her home. The story is not over. After lodging the FIR, the accused was arrested and the trial started. Four years later, a judgment was delivered in the Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track 2nd Court, Alipore. The accused was not found guilty of the offence punishable U/S 376 IPC and acquitted under Section 235(1) Cr. P.C. Meanwhile, Kalpana enrolled at Habib’s to pursue her career as a beautician. Jeevika continues to support Kalpana and her child through member fundraising.
My success as an entrepreneur has given me an identity and bargaining power in the family. Often people stare at me when I sell phuchkas at a major intersection on Bakhrahat Road but I couldn’t care less. I have no hesitation in stating that Swayamsampurna helped making this transformation a reality.
This is Archana Pramanik’s story. I live in Khiristala village. In 2010, I joined Jeevika’s SRI Programme with the objective to implement the SRI methodology on my plot (one bigha five cottahs). My husband dismissed the idea; he would not deviate from traditional farming. I compromised; if the yield decreased, I would return to traditional farming, I said. Jeevika provided support seeds and organic fertilisers during the first season. Interestingly, yield increased by 1.5 bags and with this output I convinced my husband of SRI advantages. The experiment was extended; even better, I leased another 10 cottahs in 2012; once again, there was an increase in yield. In 2013, I implemented SRI across 2.5 bighas, generating an attractive surplus and winning a much-denied financial independence. Since 2013, my daughter has joined me, engaging from transplantation to harvesting. Jeevika works with nearly 8,000 women from 48 villages (three blocks in South 24 Parganas). Jeevika strengthens the capacity of rural women to assume control of their destinies, counter patriarchy, class- and caste-based discrimination and enhance livelihood access.
Jeevika Development Society Flat 1A, South End View Building, D.H. Road, P.O. Joka, Kolkata 700104 | O: 033-24673060/24380322 E: dolonganguly@gmail.com
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egastar Salman Khan started Being Human: The Salman Khan Foundation in 2007. It works in the areas of education and healthcare. His inspiration is said to have come from watching his parents help the needy. “Whenever they were approached for help, they would try and pitch in. More often than not, this meant financial assistance,” says Alvira Agnihotri, Salman’s sister and a trustee of the not-for-profit group. “However, money in individual hands is prone to misuse; so Salman set up a foundation to contribute in a more structured manner.” Typically, Salman charges H30-40 crore for a film and a share in profits. For brand endorsements, he gets about H7 crore. The Foundation was initially funded by Salman putting in his money. To increase its reach and corpus, he started selling art and merchandise, the royalties from which go to the Foundation. He next plans to set up cafes, gyms and a production house that will help raise money for the foundation. At the Being Human store in Ambience Mall, (Gurgaon), a shop assistant signals that he is deaf and mute and points to the visual merchandiser, Rohit Dhiman. The brand employs at least one differently-abled person at all its stores. According to Dhiman, the store gets a footfall of about 100 on weekdays and 150-170 on weekends. For the Foundation, Being Human is just one of its many activities. It sees itself as an ‘NGO of NGOs’ that identifies groups that are doing good work in the area of healthcare and education and helps them scale up by raising awareness or funds or both. Salman’s charity supports three secondary schools in Mumbai. It partnered with Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages to teach vocational skills and improve employability in non-urban areas. On the health front, it helped prepare a bone marrow registry, held eye camps in rural Maharashtra and, in collaboration with Fortis Hospitals, agreed to fund the treatment of heart defects in 500 under-privileged children. Last year, the Brand Trust Report named it ‘the most-trusted NGO in India’. - Source: Business Standard, 26.04.14
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“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?” - George Eliot
“He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either.” - Nietzsche
Sister Cyril
Kolkata hero
Street kids get a home and school - for free! How the amazing Project Rainbow at Loreto Sealdah achieved what no school dared
Saviour on the streets
The story of Sanjay Ghosh, an autorickshaw driver with a difference
Rural child to child Every Saturday, 150 Loreto students (Class V onwards) go to 15 government schools to teach the primary level Hidden Domestic Child Labour Operational since 2002 with support from Save the Children (India). Objectives: Providing child domestic workers with peer education, residential support, mainstreaming them to schools and providing them vocational training with job placement CHILDLINE A national, 24-hour free emergency telephone helpline (1908) for children in need of care and protection. Currently operational in 255 cities, in partnership with 415 organisations across India. Provides shelter, medical, repatriation, rescue, sponsorships, emotional support and death-related guidance
The former President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam presenting Padma Shri to Sister M Cyril Mooney at an Investiture Ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on 23 March 2007
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he story goes that when Sister Cyril took over as Principal of Loreto Sealdah a few decades ago, one of the things she noticed was a large community of girls living on the streets in the school’s vicinity. Most principals would have commiserated about ‘destiny’ and moved on. Sister Cyril rocked the boat; she resolved to take as many children off the streets into the school with the objective to provide them with an English-medium education and shelter as well. For free. Some of the well-to-do-parents tut-tutted; their children would have to sit beside the chhokra girls; their children could potentially pick up the ways of the
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street; this is not what they expected of a Loreto Institution; better still, this is definitely not something they expected of a convent environment. Sister Cyril hadn’t finished with this conventional mindset. A few years into the experiment, a four-year-old Project Rainbow student was raped on the pavement outside the school. The maverick mistress put her heeled foot down: the girls would have to be provided residence as well. And that is how, through these two contrarian initiatives, Project Rainbow was born. Project Rainbow was different from anything tried out in Kolkata before because it took two disparate academic audiences and reconciled them within the same location.
Project Rainbow was different because most schools would have grudgingly agreed to provide free education but no school would have agreed to provide them with shelter as well. The result is that what was started as a dropin school, gradually transformed into a residential home as well. Project Rainbow is different because there was a challenge of getting this entire free education exercise funded. Sister Cyril arranged funding from Ireland and Switzerland; she roofed and tiled the terrace to create a single-roomed ‘home’ for more than 700 children, apart from using the empty classrooms after school hours for teaching. Project Rainbow is different because the school could not have hired more teachers to teach the children, so Sister Cyril proposed
something completely lateral: the fee-paying students would teach the non-paying students. The school’s time-table was redesigned in a manner that girls from classes V to X could teach for two hours a week as a part of their work education class. Only when the students matured to a certain educational standard, were they placed in a class suitable to their age. The young ones went into their formal English-medium school; the ones above 10 years went to the municipal school but continued to live in Loreto Sealdah. The entire process became sustainable. Of Loreto Sealdah’s 1,258 students, 700 were taken in from the streets. The Project Rainbow initiative was extended to five other Loreto schools in Kolkata – Loreto Sealdah, Bowbazar, Dharam-
Barefoot Teacher Training Running for the last 25 years, it is designed for people who are school dropouts or cannot qualify for a Teacher Training course but are involved in teaching in their villages or slums. Aims to provide practical classroom exposure
tala, Loreto House and Entally. There is a hardly any child on the streets of Sealdah! The transformation stories are inspiring. Padma’s father died when she was three. Her mother was from Metiabruz, worked as a household help and collected free khichdi from Mother House in Sealdah. During one of those trips, the school’s durwan asked why she wasn’t admitting her children to our project. Padma was enrolled, studied through Project Rainbow, completed her Masters and now works part-time with Vodafone.
Project Rainbow 122 Archarya Jagadish Bose Road, Kolkata 700014, India O: +91 9830834860 E: theresamendes@yahoo.co.uk
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hink of an autorickshaw driver and you think of kaata tel or misbehaviour. The one who beats this stereotype is Sanjay Ghosh. Autorickshaw driver by calling but social worker by choice. Consider this maverick: When invited to a wedding, he usually takes a handful of beggars along; acquaintances have written him off as paagol, maathamota and gadha. This is why: While doing the Bansdroni-Palpara circuit, he spotted a semi-naked woman being pelted with stones by onlookers at the prominent 30 foot mor. Ghosh dropped his
passengers to their respective destinations, returned, immediately intervened, waited for her to calm down and approached with a plateful of deem sheddho. What happened next surprised him; she offered him a handful first. Ghosh informed the Sonarpur police thana, three policemen helped carry the woman to a pukur paar where she was bathed, administered first-aid and provided a sari. The ordeal was yet to begin. The woman needed psychiatric attention, so Ghosh dropped her to Subhashgram Grameen Hospital (30 km from where he found her). The hospital refused to admit her; she was referred to Baghajatin State General Hospital, which predictably also
refused to admit her; eleven hours later, Chittaranjan Hospital (Park Circus) also …well, you know it, so Sanjay resolved that hoye nije baachbo, nahole baachaabo (Do or die. Either we both will live or else sacrifice my life here). By this time, his rickshaw was short of fuel and he had only H10 left, so when he asked the policemen for assistance, they replied, “Taaka ki gaach e fole! Policewaalaa der ki taaka r gaach aache!” (Policemen are not moneybags!) Ghosh suffered a stroke. Fearing a PR disaster, the hospital relented and within 30 seconds, the woman was admitted. When he was home, his wife remonstrated: “Jeta korecho bhalo korecho, kintu ektu amaar kotha o bhebo!” (Whatever you have done is worthy of appreciation but you must not forget that you have a family too). Or take the case of Bimala from Bihar. Lured by a false promise of marriage, she was abandoned by her lover. Ghosh chanced about a starving Bimala. Worse, she was being coaxed by hooligans into a taxi. Ghosh requested a Bansdroni resident to let Bimala stay overnight; the next
Making use of every scrap
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n 2012, Goonj was chosen by NASA and the US state department as a ‘Game Changing Innovation’ and in the same year, Forbes magazine listed Anshu Gupta as one of India’s most powerful rural entrepreneurs. It casts an indelible impression on the mind when one sees how used clothes, electronics, shoes, pencil stubs and other sundry city discards are repaired and reinvented there to create resources to value cash-strapped villagers. “It’s not been an easy journey,” says, Anshu Gupta, the founder of Goonj settling down in his chair. “India doesn’t have a culture of giving. Motivating the rich to part with things lying unused in their homes - and the poor, to work to fulfil their needs instead of getting them as free handouts - has
been tough,” he adds. Yet today, Goonj is operational in 21 States across the country, transferring over 1,000 tonnes of used clothes, household goods and other essential items from cities to villages annually. The Goonj model is simple, he explains. “In our Cloth for Work programme, we suggest villagers that in return for their undertaking some community service - digging a well, making a road, and cleaning a lake and so on - we’ll give them whatever they need without compromising their dignity,” says Gupta. With this model, villagers in Khandwa (Madhya Pradesh) have built a water tank; de-silted a well in Chapra (Bihar); built a school in Sitamani, Bihar - performing a total of over 1,500 community acts so far. Gupta is
morning, Ghosh took Bimala to Nitai Mukherjee (Hive India NGO). When Ghosh went to file a police complaint, the interrogation lasted 12 hours. Finally, the Officer Commanding of Regent Park Police Station apologised with folded hands: “Aamaar khub onnay hoyeche jey apnaar moton akta devotullyo maanush ke aami ei bhaabe opmaan korechi, jera korechi. Aamaake khoma kore din. Ami shotti-shotti bujhte paari nei!” (I am extremely sorry. It wasn’t intentional. I am wracked with guilt for insulting you. My behavior is unpardonable. I treated you as a criminal. However, you are a true saviour). You would think that the autorickshaw drivers would be proud. Think again. Two women – one pregnant - needed to be driven to a hospital. An auto driver demanded H130; Ghosh drove them to M.R. Bangur Hospital. When he returned, he was assaulted for having ‘affected the trade’. Ironically, when the trade union contemplated action against those engaged in the assault, Ghosh pleaded on their behalf. Providing the vulnerable with
street support is this man’s calling. For instance, Ashok Mukherjee stepped out of home following an altercation with his brother; Ghosh found him at Bansdroni with a broken hip. Ghosh immediately called the Bansdroni police thana, policemen assumed control but when Ghosh returned he found the man unattended and the policemen unbothered. Ghosh confronted; the policemen replied, “Sanjayda! Aapni keno ato chaap nicchen! Ooni akhon amaader elaaka r baire chole gechen, raasta r oi paar holo Regent Park thaana r under e!” Ghosh is nothing if not an activist. He called a media friend who highlighted this issue and the government authorities swung into action. Not surprisingly, in January 2014, Times of India honoured Sanjay Ghosh as one of the unsung heroes of the city. For attending to people in distress. For being one in thousands stepping forward. For caring really. Each one of us has this choice. How many exercise it? Sanjay Ghosh can be contacted at 9163135929
Armchair philanthropists equally enthusiastic about their “School to School programme”, which supplies books, recycled stationery, school bags, tiffin boxes and water bottles to village schools. “When a child in Delhi throws away a school bag because the cartoon character on it isn’t fashionable anymore, it has the potential of becoming the magnet that draws a rural student to school” he says. Thus, the Goonj model not only reduces cash expenditure in low-income households, resulting in a small but critical expansion of their spending power - it also becomes a non-monetary tool for social and environmental change. - Source: Business Standard, 03.05.14
Although the massive onetime donations made by wealthy philanthropists often get the most media coverage, experts say that real social change can only be effected when everybody gets in on the act. That’s why non-profit organisations and other groups
are trying to make it as simple as possible for average people to get involved in philanthropy. Case in point: After a series of devastating earthquakes hit Haiti in January 2010, millions of cell phone users donated to relief efforts by sending a text message to a special number set up by the Red Cross. Most of the donations were only $10 each, but in the end, more than $22 million was collected, proving once and for all exactly how true the old adage about strength in numbers really is! - Source: akorra.com
“I really hope that the philanthropy movement is seen not just as wealthy people giving money away but wealthy people giving away their time, their energy and their ideas.” - David Rubenstein
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“Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.” - Kahlil Gibran
“If service is the rent you pay for your existence on this earth, are you behind in your rent?” - Robert G Allen
Goranbose Gram Bikash Kendra
Samarpan Foundation
Abducted. Sold. Prostituted.
This is the destiny of hundreds of girls in South Bengal until Nihar Raftan of GGBK selected to make a difference gies: outreach and identification of victims in six Sunderbans blocks, assisting victims with help at destination points, family reunification and reintegration, disseminating information, setting up Child Protection Unit (CPUs), providing education and vocational training, assisting the State in rescuing trafficked girls and the prosecution of traffickers, engaging in rehabilitation projects, health care services, community-based health initiatives (STD/HIV camps, eye camp, reproductive health programmes), employment programmes, micro savings and credit development. I mean just about everything that is of rural relevance.
Nihar Raftan, the founder of GGBK Q: Running a counter-trafficking NGO in Canning may not be the easiest of things. A: The South 24 Parganas is a breeding ground for gender crimes. Do you know the average age of a female preyed upon by traffickers? Ten! That’s right, ten-years-old. And most of these girls come from families who do not have the means to defend themselves against the traffickers. That’s why NGOs like us are in existence. Q: So what is Goranbose Gram Bikash Kendra? A: We were created by a few individuals to address underdevelopment, poor governance and suffering in Sunderbans. We started operations in a cluster of villages in Goranbose (Basanti block). We focused on women empowerment and child abuse to address a sharp increase in the disappearance
of girls and women. We started assisting families to register cases, pressurise the police to rescue victims, prosecuted traffickers and networked with other like-minded NGOs to coordinate post-rescue support and rehabilitation. The result is that GGBK is developing into an integrated development agency addressing rural poverty alleviation and counter-trafficking. Please tell us about GGBK’s case management programme. Initially, GGBK worked on relief, women empowerment, children’s rights and community development through infrastructure building measures like providing low-cost housing, drinking water and sanitation facilities. However, when women’s trafficking began to emerge as a threat, we responded with a case management programme around the following strate-
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How has the counter-trafficking initiative fared? Since 2010, some 534 girls have been reported missing, with 433 ending up in brothels. The police seldom cooperate and delay the registration of trafficking complaints. However, through the case management programme on trafficking, GGBK rescued 267 girls who were accepted into their families and encouraged to start life afresh. GGBK lodged 117 FIRs; filed 45 charge sheets and assisted the prosecution of traffickers by motivating the families of victims and providing them protection against threats. Promises like ‘Chol toke shohor e niye giye bhalo chakri debo’, or ‘Aami toke bhalo baashi, shohor e niye giye biye korbo’ would impress the girls to no end. However, today traffickers are finding it more difficult to lure women with these promises in our area. Which have been some heart-warming instances of your success? In 1995-96, Kajol went missing in the Canning basti. Her mother was a roadside fish seller. Soon a search began and a neighbour indicated that Kajol was last seen with a certain, Menoka Nashkar. Both could no longer be traced; Menoka’s son denied knowledge of her whereabouts. Just at that time,
his phone began to ring - Menoka was at the other end. We snatched the phone and discovered that the call had been made from Mumbai (022-code). The police was indifferent; Deenbandhubabu and Shanti Mali from GGBK went to Mumbai and after a long ordeal succeeded in bringing Kajol back. Similarly, Marjina lured her neighbour and 25-year-old mother Rupa to Mumbai with the promise of a plush job. Some time later, Marjina transported two girls but one escaped. Marjina was caught and we retrieved Rupa as well. When he discovered Rupa, her body was covered with cigarette butt marks. However, this time the police buckled under public pressure and cooperated and the result was a 12-year conviction for Marjina. Or take the case of Mullicka Lashkar whose husband was a gram panchayat member and was an active political activist. After her husband died, Mullicka was fancied by another political activist. By this time, Mullicka had become a daily labourer. Seeing an opportunity, the brother of the other activist seduced Mullicka’s 12-year-old sister and sold her in Delhi. Finally, with the help of Mahila commission, Human Rights commission and Superintendent of Police (South 24 Parganas), a complaint was lodged, the girl recovered and was brought back to Alipore Court where her age was falsified as 19. With this cover, the 12-year-old was married off to an accomplice, who continued to rape her. It’s been 10 years, case cholche. However, we are continuing to fight. So how can the problem be more competently addressed? The problem is that West Bengal is the only State where Immoral Trafficking Pact Act (ITPA) isn’t valid, which is ironical because Bengal is the source of women trafficking. Besides, to
book a trafficker under ITPA, a case must be registered by a person who equals the rank of an inspector whereas in underdeveloped areas, the cases are registered by sub-inspectors. Ei faank e trafficker gulo beriye jaaye. Once the victim is rescued, we draft a Home Investigation Report which is sent to the destination point, and following verification, the victim travels back with us to her native place. If the victim is a minor then she stays with the Child Welfare Committee; if she is an adult, she is handed over to her family. The real ordeal begins when a victim becomes a survivor – for her and for us! How are you helping survivors start life afresh? Wth capacity-building which constitutes training in self-defense. Next comes mental support, where they are counseled by psychiatrists. We ensure that they are accepted back in their community; affection can help them forget their past. We are fortunate that GGBK is enriched with educationists, lawyers, doctors and other professionals. Once self-development leads to optimism, we provide them financial support to get into some form of an enterprise (livestock, grocery, cosmetics or laundry). How do you sustain financially? We were funded by organisations like Paul Hamlyn Foundation, European Commission Anti-Trafficking, a survival collective group and the French embassy. However, following a change in their government, our funds have dried. Doctors and lawyers work pro bono for us, so we continue to live to fight another day! www.ggbk.org.in
Goranbose Gram Bikash Kendra Village. Rajarlat, PO. Canning Town, South 24 Parganas West Bengal 743329 O: 03218-255-257 M: 9609127961 E: nraptan@gmail.com
Building Sunderbans’ first hospital!
Sangeeta Ganeriwala explains the amazing work of Samarpan Foundation in the Sunderbans
Q: What is the Samarpan Foundation’s area of work? A: We are an interestingly different NGO, in that unlike most NGOs with a fixed agenda, we really do what needs to be done engaged in delivering the greatest good for the largest number. Q: Which project are you principally engaged in? A: A few years ago, some of our members who went to the Sunderbans to sight the Royal Bengal Tiger came back with a
different kind of sighting: appalling living conditions on the islands. No water (except brackish), no electricity, no medical facilities. So, Samarpan Foundation invested in 17 deep tube wells (over 1,000 ft!) and opened a free weekly healthcare clinic. We soon realised that this was inadequate; our NGO is now engaged in building a 30-bed hospital, which should be commissioned by December 2014.
Q: Why Sunderbans? A: Why not? Sunderbans is generally a case of out of sight and out of mind for most people in India. The location is not more than three hours from the largest city in Eastern India and people would be surprised that it does not have grid electricity because it is considered sub-economical to provide it across the region. If this be the official stance, then we are not surprised that the area is as impoverished or as neglected. The result is that if you travel across most of the Sunderbans, you will see an absence of basic facilities like drinking water and medical care. This is what rural Bengal was probably before Independence, except that progress has bypassed this part of India completely. Q: Can you tell us something more about the hospital? A: Can you believe that from Bali Island, the nearest Government Primary Health Centre in Gosaba is approximately 20km away and accessible only by boat? So you actually have an island with
35,000 inhabitants and more than 60,000 in neighbouring islands without a single hospital! Currently, we run a weekly clinic on Bali Island but this is simply inadequate. We believe that most medical cases in the Sunderbans are not reported at all because there is no hope of getting to a doctor and back within four hours. The result is a large flourishing practice of quacks! Q: What kind of hospital – one of the first in the Sunderbans – are you intending to build? A: We are starting with a 30-bed hospital which will comprise two general wards (10 beds each) a paediatric ward (5 beds), intensive care unit (2 beds), isolation room (2 beds) and emergency room (1 bed). Besides, we have provided for an operating theatre, X-ray room, pathological laboratory, dispensary and an out-patients department. For a region that does not even have a moderate hospital, this is really the next generation healthcare intervention in the Sunderbans.
Q: What is the budget for the hospital and how has Samarpan Foundation selected to fund it? A: The total budget for the hospital is H1,75,29,150. Our projects are run by volunteers who do not claim any expenses and we rely totally on donations. Q: Are you optimistic of drawing the right kind of doctors and nurses to serve in the Sunderbans? A: Yes, we are in dialogue with several reputed hospitals, to have their specialists visit our facility at regular intervals. Besides, we will have two Resident Medical Officers (RMO) at the hospital.
www.samarpanfoundation.org
Samarpan Foundation Healing Center Flat 4 and 5 (1st floor) Radha Niketan 28B Rowland Road, Kolkata 700020 M: +91-9331001887
NGO focus
Where can the mentally ill find treatment?
The remarkable story of NGO Paripurnata 1 Paripurnata is West Bengal’s
first half-way home for women confined in jails or mental hospitals – a psycho-social rehabilitation centre – which prepares them and their families for subsequent assimilation into society. 2 The rehabilitation is free, comprises pharmacotherapy, occupational therapy, non-formal education and counseling. Following our intervention, women re-learn skills (cooking, cleaning, and shopping) which enhances their confidence. 3 In the late Eighties, social
activists raised awareness about mentally-ill individuals, who, because of a paucity of accom-
modation in mental hospitals, were consigned to prisons and dismissed as ‘non-criminal lunatics’, but in reality were treated like criminals and subjected to appalling sub-human conditions - without treatment, without the hope of recovery and without any hope of meeting their families ever again.
six-bed facility in a dilapidated Rajabazar building belonging to the Department of Prisons. As this location did not have any scope for expansion, Paripurnata applied and received a plot in 1912 Panchasayar Road (Chakgaria) on lease for 30 years (2000-2030) from the Government of West Bengal.
4 When Dr Joyce Siromani moved to Kolkata, she observed the plight of mentally ill individuals wandering through the streets. She sought government assistance as a result of which Paripurnata launched its first half-way home in Eastern India in 1992.
6 Subsequently, the building was constructed with the help of donations received from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (100% of cost) and private donors. Paripurnata moved to its new building in 2006. The model envisages a residential psychosocial rehabilitation process involving pharmacotherapy, counselling,
5 Paripurnata was started as a
occupational therapy and socio-cultural therapy.
deprived of dignity and recovery.
7 In late 1992, a commission constituted by the Supreme Court of India visited Paripurnata to examine its process of psychosocial rehabilitation and recommended that the process be replicated in every district of West Bengal.
9 In the last couple of decades of our existence, some 212 mentally-ill women have been rehabilitated by Paripuranata (success rate 86%) and now employed in various capacities, or have returned home to become productive family members.
8 Paripurnata is the only half-way home in the State that brings chronically mentally-ill women from Calcutta’s notorious Pavlov Hospital and provides free psychosocial rehabilitation including restoration and reintegration. This entire area of work is relevant, without which 10-15% of our citizens would be
www.paripurnata.org
Paripurnata 1912 Panchasayar Road P.O. Panchasayar Kolkata 700094, India O: +91-33-24329339/8824 E: paripurnata@gmail.com
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“Not he who has much is rich but he who gives much.” - Erich Fromm
“Sometimes give your services for nothing.” - Hippocrates
Which NGO needs what Donations required
Calcutta Rescue
Samaritan Help Mission
Pre-used clothes for Goonj
School bus
Unused medicines for RHCF
Support for the salaries of doctors. Currently we have 10 doctors who are being paid H25,000 per month
Projector screens and computers for eight classrooms
Old newspapers for Iswar Sankalpa
The Leprosy Mission Home and Hospital Care for complications of 100 Leprosy patients (Reactions/ Neuritis/Ulcers)
H5,000-15,000 per patient
150 pairs of foot wear (MCR chappal)
H350 per pair
50 pairs of foot drop shoe
H1,000 per pair
Artificial limbs (above and below knee)
H4,500 per pair (above knee) H3,500 per pair (below knee)
Ten wheel chairs
H9,000 per chair
20 crutches
H1,000 per chair
15 patient beds (fowlers)
H15,000 per pair
50 bed side lockers
H5,000 per pair
Four cardiac monitors
H90,000 each
Three high-flow Aqua Guards
H15,000
Paras Padma Medicines for outpatients department (10,000 patients)
H5,00,000 (H50 per patient)
100 callipers (AFO, KAFO, special chair, hand splint etc) for disabled children
H3,50,000 (H3500 per calliper)
Adivaani A TASCAM portable field audio recorder and shotgun mic for the documentation tools library
H50,000
Printing a book
H75,000
English language skills training for adivasi teachers
H1,00,000
Support for nutritional cost for two schools. Current expenditure is H1,20,000 per month for two schools Computers for Talapark Clinic and School Funding for vocational programmes (mobile repairing, beautician’s course, driving, tailoring etc)
H4,00,000 (H50,000 each)
Chaaya Buy more land (10-12 kottahs) for large animals to graze and walk around Set up small treatment rooms in different parts of Kolkata, in collaboration with volunteers for on-site treatment of animals Set up solar panels for lighting requirements
Iswar Sankalpa Funds for a permanent residential living centre for the homeless at Netra in South 24 Parganas Volunteers required for: • Urban Mental Health Programme (UMHP). Timings: 4-5 hours a day, 3 days a week • Functional Literacy Programme at Sarbari – Night Shelter for Homeless Mentally-Ill Women at Chetla. Timings: 2-3 hours a day, at least 3 days a week • Photographing the activities of the organisation. Timings: 3 hours a day, 3 days a week An ambulance van
Mentaid
The doctor who does 800 free cataract operations a year
The remarkable story of Dr Rajani Saraf who conducts a cataract operation every ten minutes by Mudar Patherya
Recurring expenditure: Staff honorarium
H3,60,000
Building maintenance
H60,000
Recreation materials
H70,000
Tiffin (H10 x 30 days x 12 months x 100 students)
H3,60,000
Electricity, phone, contingency expenses
H30,000
Non-recurring expenses: Books, bags and uniforms (H1,000 x 100 students)
H1,00,000
Water purifier and cooler
H20,000
Ground floor work
H50,00, 000
Grocery
H10,000 per month
Rural Health Care Foundation (RHCF)
Items for vocational training
H3,000 per month
One day medicine supply for 1,000 patients (H30 per patient)
H30,000
H39,000
Educational need for 70 children for one month
H29,400
Free spectacles to 300 people (H130 per spectacle) Surgeries of 10 cataract patients (H1,000 per patient)
H10,000
H63,000
Sugar detection camp for 200 patients (H30 per patient)
H6,000
Sponsor deficit of one Rural Healthcare Foundation Centre’s operation expenses
H30,000
Support a child for one year to go to school (all inclusive)
H15,000
H24,500
Prepare 40 children between ages 6 to 13 for admission into a regular school with an abridge course (quarterly)
H30,000
Health and hygiene needs for 70 children for one month Education and healthcare support for 1 child for one year
H6,000
Run Montessori classes for 120 children for three months (all inclusive)
H1,20,000
Provide mid-day meals to 300 children for three months
H1, 80, 000
Support computer education by adding two more computer systems to the existing computer lab set-up
H50,000
internship at 28 and was ready for independent practice, she already had 10,000 surgeries behind her. Ten thousand.
Sir Syed English Primary School
H3,50,000
Balance dietary needs for 70 children for one month
Ek Tara
Inspiration material
Bore well
OFFER
Civilian Welfare Foundation Setting up a medical clinic
H5,60,000
Basic healthcare research on transgenders
H50,000
Website development for para-athletes giving them exposure and sponsorship opportunities
H3,00,000
Sponsoring a starter kit (school uniform, school shoes, school bags, pencil box, tiffin box and water bottle) for the slum kids in Pyerabagan (Kolkata)
H1,000
Sponsorship for para-athletes competing in the Asian games
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Y
ou apologise when you ask Dr Rajani Saraf for an hour of her time for an interview. For someone who conducts a cataract operation every ten minutes, an hour is probably the equivalent of asking her to wish away H120,000 for this column. She puts me at ease; she does 800 cataract surgeries free each year, so my interview time could be considered as an extension of her philanthropy. Dr Rajani grew up in an environment where philanthropy was reconciled with a professional career. Her father (Dr GK Saraf) pioneered the concept of free eye camps in rural Bengal and even as other teenage girls of her age would probably crochet their way through the weekend, Dr Rajani would accompany her father to these camps. While she was there ostensibly to ‘just watch’, an image began to crystallise: rural poverty, post-operative transition and
villagers touching her father’s feet in gratitude. So when Dr Rajani said it was only natural that she too would want to become a surgeon, the family surprisingly vetoed the suggestion. For a simple reason: it would take a decade to prepare her for surgeonhood, by which time she would be 28 and too old for marriage. So Dr Rajani bribed the family domestic help (‘one shirt and one pant’) to stand in the queue for the entrance form, passed the exam and announced to the family that she had been admitted, so now what would the family want to do about it. The family said simple, don’t attend classes. So Dr Rajani went on a bhookh hartal that went into the third day by which time a bua had stepped in, harangued the family and truce announced. The girl would be allowed to study. Now that Rajani was a medical student, the father relented to delegate the relatively unimportant surgical steps, then a few more, with the result that by the time she had completed her
Even as recent as 30 years ago, the treatment of cataracts was increasingly relevant for some good reasons: as medicines became more effective, affordable and accessible, Indians began to live longer. Correspondingly, cataract incidence increased. Due to the painless nature of the ailment, a number of the rural under-privileged postponed treatment until you had thousands of burst cataract cases leading to blindness. Dr Rajani recalls the inequity: “We had gone to the godown of a jute mill in Bongaon near the Bangladesh border to treat patients where we must have checked nearly a thousand during the day. When it was time to leave, we literally had to separate the rural folk from our feet and close the door as we had to be back in Kolkata that evening. All your life you are taught to welcome a patient and here we were turning them away. Terribly embarrassing.”
began to emerge: hospitals began to fund cataract treatments for the under-privileged as an extension of their corporate social responsibility, a number of NGOs began to focus exclusively on cataract treatment and individuals stepped forward with requests like ‘Please conduct 200 surgeries and send me the bill’. The result is that due to surgeons who waive their personal fees, it is now possible to transform someone’s life for as little as a return taxi fare from Tollygunge to the airport. This expansion in the cataract treatment space means a premium on the time of willing professionals like Dr Rajani. On any Sunday from November to February, the compound of Jubilee Park on Little Russell Street is mela-like with car loads of rural patients having been brought to the city. For someone who works nearly a dozen Sundays
back-to-back, “this is really a big de-stresser because in this material world where no one really has any time for anyone else, these camps keep re-affirming the point that I am of some use to someone,” she says. Dr Rajani has a word of advice for me: “When a family is engaged in some philanthropic activity, it gradually discovers its soul and brings members closer. And when you engage your children – even if they have to just hand out a blanket to someone who is shivering - you are creating the foundation for them to become responsible members of the society when they grow older.” This is no preaching from a perch; the monetised value of her free operations is equivalent to H1.6 cr in my book. Every year. Dr Rajani Saraf can be reached at eyepavilion@yahoo.com
Dress to save!
Then something happened. The introduction of micro-surgery transformed the surgical process; cataract patients who needed to be admitted to hospitals two days before the operation and nursed for a week thereafter, could now walk out within three hours of the operation; infections declined; the cost of a cataract surgery dropped from H5,000 to H800 (effectively adjusted post-inflation to a couple of hundred rupees). And just so rarely there comes a time in the history of surgical intervention when there is a sweet convergence: huge unmet medical needs on the one hand, and a sharp decline in treatment costs on the other. Treatments accelerated. The result was that a number of institutions now
Turtle, one of India’s men’s fashion brands launched the ‘Dressed to Save’ campaign which focuses on saving the environment. Engaged in the conservation of turtles for many years, the brand recently launched eco-friendly khadi shirts to reinforce its environment commitment.
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“To give away money is an easy matter and in any man’s power. But to decide to whom to give it and how large and when, and for what purpose and how, is neither in every man’s power nor an easy matter.” - Aristotle
Philanthropist-cum-entrepreneur
A profile of entrepreneur and philanthropist Raju Bharat
Y
ou would expect the promoter of the swish Kenilworth Hotel in Kolkata to be a bean counter with one eye on the occupancy rate and the other on the cash till. Raju Bharat is quite the opposite really. A philanthropist in disguise. Talk to him about how many rooms he intends to renovate and he might yawn through the answer. Talk to him about how he intends to grow
Bharat wears many hats, a number of them having no connection with his business. “I invest about 30% of my time in philanthropy and dedicate the first four-five hours of the morning (starting 6 am) to this work,” he says. “The rest of the time, I look after the hotel because entrepreneurship can facilitate sustainable philanthropy!” Facilitate philanthropy. Interesting term. Meaning that the time Bharat spends on the business provides him with the resource and opportunity to play the bigger game - of life itself. “I am also involved with Apne Aap, which provides vocational rehabilitation to trafficking victims and at present, there are about 20 young women undergoing training in cooking and catering so that they may sell
food and earn a respectable livelihood,” he says. “I am also engaged with Bridge Builders, the Kolkata chapter of which was started in 2011 by my mentor and guru Dada Vaswani. We organise an event comprising limb donation, conduct birthday celebrations at old age homes and work with the blind, among others. Through the MS Bharat Educational Trust, we provide funds to needy girl students who have completed class XII but cannot fund their studies further. We provide vocational training (teaching and nursing, among others) so that they may not only fulfill their dreams but also sustain their livelihood without external dependence.” As President of the Philanthropic Society of the Orthodox Church (PSOC), he looks after a residential school for girls. That’s not the amazing part. The twist is that PSOC was established by a Greek monk called
Ignatious, which provides schooling and holistic care to more than 100 girls (0-12 years) up to class V on the outskirts of the city. A Greek nun and 20 qualified teachers and support staff impart values-based education. I ask a stupid question. Why focus on girls? Bharat rolls out the numbers. “Of more than 11 million abandoned babies in India, 90 per cent are little girls. Every sixth girl child’s death is due to gender discrimination; 3 lac more girls than boys die every year. Some 53% of girls in the age group of 5 to 9 years are illiterate.” What makes PSOC different is a number of things. “One, we have restricted our scale to 100 girls with a 1:5 supervisor-student ratio, which is probably the best anywhere in Kolkata resulting in specialised attention,” he says. The result is showing. Bharat recounts the case
Why do suicidal teens turn to an 85-year-old priest for help?
The story of a one-man NGO called Brother Brendan MacCarthaigh What was the spark that created SERVE? While I was into active teaching, I used to often stand at the entrance of St. Joseph’s College in Bowbazar greeting the boys as they came in to sense their mood. During exam times, the boys would have a ‘glassy look’; they would greet me with unseeing eyes. Over time, I came to conclude that they were tense, apprehensive and even carried a ‘burden’ while walking into the examination hall. For most of them, academic success was ‘izzat ka sawaal.’
of Debbie (name changed), who was dumped in a garbage van when she was barely a few days old. She had warts on her face, her brain was damaged and her body was shivering. Today’s Debbie is 12-years-old, who can spell letters of full sentences, read backwards, multiply three digits by two digits, draw sketches and sings! PSOC’s six-acre campus is now being supplemented by another five acres on which we intend to grow the number of classes and construct a boys’ residential school. Bharat’s plate is full. Pun intended.
The Philanthropic Society of the Orthodox Church (PSOC) 2A Library Road, Kalighat, Kolkata 700 026, India E: rajubharat@hotmail.com
Interesting. The Indian culture puts an unbelievably high premium on izzat and penalises failure. Students in India are pressured to perform at the cost of means that are widely thought to be unfair – cogging, copying, prostituting or bribing – just to secure either a merit certificate or score high marks befit-
Festival of philanthropy
Joy of Giving Week becomes Daan Utsav! viduals engaged across 80-plus cities through around 900 events organised by individuals, schools, colleges, corporates and NGOs etc.
Y
ou would think that philanthropy was just something that we all were encouraged to do on the quiet, until, there came along this bright fellow from Mumbai who said it was time to transform this into a week-long national event so that we could give it visibility so that newspapers could carry pictures and more people would start giving. And that is exactly what happened. In 2013, some three million indi-
The Joy of Giving Week has grown into India’s biggest philanthropy calendar item; what was considered an idea that wouldn’t extend into the second year is now into its fifth; one felt this once-in-a-year act would engage a few thousands but has extended across lacs and remarkably just when JOGW has become a brand, the principal volunteers go ahead and change its name! Just what the hell is happening? “This is really the inflection point,” explains Venkat Krishnan, who calls himself the Principal Volunteer (not Chairman Emeritus!). “Over the years, we got JOGW to a point where we realised that it was a good urban event but for it to become a pan-national phenomenon that extended to rural India, we needed a name that would connect with people of all tongues and re-
15
Appreciation
The unusual passion of the man who owns Kenilworth Hotel! the girls’ school on the outskirts of Kolkata and you might get him to sit up, clear his throat, look you in the eye – and engage.
“The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall: but in charity there is no excess; neither can angel nor man come in danger by it.” - Sir Francis Bacon
gions. So, JOGW was evolved into Daan Utsav!” A number of things make JOGW different. One, it is not an organisation; it is a ‘festival of giving’. Two, it does not employ anyone and does not collect funds; givers connect directly with the recipients. Three, whoever engages, does so in a voluntary capacity. Four, it has no office and the volunteers largely work from their homes or offices and stay connected with each other via the phone, in person or the virtual space. Five, there are no designations; we are all volunteers. Six, there are no hierarchies or structures but are completely open - anyone can volunteer or create her own group of volunteers and evangelise the idea. This kind of an approach and structure can be very empowering; someone joining as a volunteer today can fit seamlessly into the scheme of things and feel that he or she is an integral part of the action.
So how does Joy of Giving Week happen? “As a volunteer, my responsibility is to get various institutions – corporates, schools, colleges – and individuals interested in making voluntary contributions of cash, kind or word during this one week,” explains Sara Adhikari (in picture), one of the prominent Kolkata-based volunteers. The result was a variety of initiatives. One of the popular concepts was Wish Tree; an NGO, say one running a school for street kids, could put up a Wish Tree in the foyer of a school with ‘wish tags’ of specific needs. Students, employees or visitors belonging to the institution could fulfill the wish and by the end of the week, the wish tags would all be replaced by the Joy of Giving Week logo, an orange smiley face! Similarly, the net-savvy founder of an NGO ran a workshop for other NGOs on how they could improve online donations. A shipping company provided 100 under-privi-
leged children a cruise down the Hooghly. A HIDCO official provided free access to NGO-assisted children to the Eco Park. The management of Avani Mall (Howrah) conducted free dental check-ups for under-privileged children, a crafts mela for NGOs, an art exhibition for children and, best of all, positioned their celebration of the Joy of Giving Week as a countdown to the puja celebrations!
E: info@joyofgivingweek.org. facebook.com/ joyofgivingweek
joyofgivingweek
What if they don’t? Suicide. As per National Crime Records Bureau, the country witnessed an average of 15 suicides an hour or 371 suicides per day. West Bengal was a close third with a score of 14,957 in 2012 (Source: Lancet). I got my own little research going and found that students entered the examination hall with a big burden: my mother will ‘wail’, my father will beat me, my khandaan will disown me, my teachers will taunt me and my peers will laugh. The only escape: suicide. Is social exclusion the only reason students commit suicide? While we were planning and formulating our strategies that would eventually lead to the formation of SERVE, we came across a shocking case when a student committed suicide. To investigate, we sent a representative to an open forum where the case was discussed; we discovered that the suicide was not committed as a result of academic pressures but sexual abuse by the father! Our research indicat-
ed something scarier: almost 50 percent girl students suffered sexual exploitation of one kind or another in that state (either at the hands of uncles paying their fees or tutors disguising as mentors or parents venting their frustration). What did you do about it? One of the things that SERVE provides is telephonic counseling – in fact, it is probably Kolkata’s only telephonic helpline for students at-risk. This ‘at-risk’ period is usually prior to exams when students are most vulnerable – at a tipping point, so to speak. During this period, we recognised that students keep thinking of exams, which is probably normal; what is not normal is students keep thinking of the consequences of exams, and worse, consequences of exams when they won’t get good grades. And when, at this point, there is no limit to the ‘consequences’; a number of students feel that it is better to give up instead. What we have done is provided students my number. I am available 24x7. The very fact that I get a call indicates that the student is willing to consid-
er his/her decision; one of the first things that I do is provide a calming voice; provide the assurance that it is normal for fears of a poor performance to be temporarily exaggerated. A number of students, when they hear this, start recognising that what they are going through is something that most go through anyway. That does half the trick; the rest of the strategy is to gradually weave them into a mood that is better than complete hopelessness, give them positive ideas to play with and once the students enter this virtuous cycle, they feel empowered to believe that things can never be as bad as they once appeared. I get about 5-7 calls a month and I would like to believe that my counseling has helped curb student suicide.
www.serve4students.net.in
The SERVE Centre 69 and 70 BB Ganguly Street, Kolkata 700012, India O: +91-33-22122219 E: macbren72@gmail.com
Volunteering
Florence Nightingale on Kolkata’s streets
The big plan for 2014? “Instead of concentrating on one Infosys Foundation giving gifts to 10,000 children, we have tried to get 10,000 children to give to at least one. So while the number of receivers remain the same, the givers increased exponentially!”
Joy of Giving Week
ting the social standing of their families. And if they don’t…
A
s Kolkata was gearing to embrace New Year on the night of 31 December 2013, Gita Dey saw a policeman shivering at a Tollygunge check
post and approached – unusual - to ask if he was okay. He said he was not; he had a high fever. Gita, who is coincidentally a nurse, arranged an ambulance, administered a mild analgesic and set the policeman to recovery. Or take the instance of a police constable at Alipore Police Station who felt uneasy and then experienced palpitations. Gita administered Sorbitrate, shifted the constable to hospital and helped avert a heart attack. These are just a good-deedin-the-life-of-Gita-Dey kind of
initiatives. Each morning she walks into slums to check medically on those who cannot afford to go to a doctor. She checks street dwellers for diabetes, blood pressure and weight (for just H10 per person). She created a first-aid safety kit (24 products) for South Kolkata police stations.
lation that can’t afford H200 for a health check. This is the segment that I reach out to every single morning.” Half the funding comes from her pocket. “The irony is that people with meagre resources offer physical and financial support in conducting health camps and taking patients to the hospitals,” she says.
“When most of us think of health care, we generally think of the kind that is delivered in clinics or formal health centres,” she says. “Nobody takes into account a large part of the popu-
Gita was a trained nurse at Woodlands Hospital for years. Now in her advanced years, when most would have retired, she baby-sits nights at affluent families, conducts medical vis-
its each morning across street patients, naps post noon and is back to work as a nanny the afternoon onwards. For her selfless philanthropy, Gita was selected an unsung hero of the city by Times of India in January 2014. Gita Dey can be reached at 9830380687
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“Don’t just put it off and think about it!” - Horace
“As the purse is emptied the heart is filled.” - Victor Hugo
Pioneer
Corporate Social Responsibility
On cloud nine with a computer
Liberating Kolkata of fallen trees!
The unusual CSR of Quippo Construction Equipment Ltd.
Sugata Mitra’s School in the Cloud is off to a start in two Bengal villages.
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300
Million, the number of Indians classified as living below-the-poverty line
50
Percentage of the world’s hungry in India
8
The number of countries not in the G20 likely to donate money to charity (World Giving Index, 2013)
1.5
“K
i re? Tora shob ready toh? (Are you all ready or not?),” asks Sugata Mitra in a warm and inviting tone as 24 children aged four to 14 huddle around the education scientist.
“Ek, dui, teen…(One, two, three…),” he counts each head, leading them through the glass entrance into what looks like a fun learning lab. The kids, who had never seen a computer before, settle quietly on the little red, blue and white stools. “Ebar ja ichhe kor, aami janina (Do what you want to, I don’t know),” Mitra announces before stepping out, leaving the children baffled. For the next ten minutes, they sit silently staring at the monitors, keyboards and mice. Then one of the kids gets fidgety. He picks up a mouse as another starts to press the buttons on the keyboard. One by one, they leave their stools to join the action as windows randomly pop up on the computer screens. This is just what Mitra wanted. Over the next few minutes, the children are appropriately like kids in a toy shop. Some have managed to change the wallpapers several times over. Some chase animals on Farm Frenzy, others watch wildlife videos and
a few even find the shutdown button and learn to reboot the machines! It is, as Mitra puts it, “2000 BC to 2014 in 20 minutes.” In the interior-most end of Dhamakhali in the Sunderbans — one-and-a-half hours by road, a 20-minute boat ride and an hour-long rickshaw ride away — lies Korakati, a village that had been hammered by Cyclone Aila in 2009. Across the wet embankments, the roads get narrower, the bends sharper and the ride bumpier as you dodge chicken, goats, calves and children aimlessly criss-crossing your path till you finally arrive at this glass-walled structure bang in the middle of palm trees, mud houses and cowsheds. This 20x20 ft learning lab reflects Mitra’s belief in the theory of “emergent order out of chaos”. In this village with limited electricity, Megher Koley School is powered by solar energy with a 40ft tall bamboo pole sticking out into the sky with a receiver on top to catch Internet signals. This is TED prize winner Mitra’s ‘Area One’, or “the remotest of the seven schools in the Cloud locations” spanning the UK and India. Bishakha Gayen, from the near-
by village of Dhuchnekhali, is here today to admit her eightyear-old son Himadri. “He will be able to learn English and the school is so beautiful. All made of glass!” she says. Joyprokash Mondal has come because he doesn’t want his daughter to be ignorant like him. “I am jobless right now. Wherever we go in search of better jobs, they ask if we know computers and we don’t. It’s the reason why our village is still so backward,” he says. Sandhya Rani Mondal has brought along her six-year-old daughter and four-year-old son so that they can compete with their peers in the city. “Primary education is not enough. Computers and English are important for our children to be as prepared as city children,” she says. If working on a computer for the first time has left the children fascinated, a frisson of excitement runs through the glasswalled room when three Grannies from the UK and Australia make an appearance on Skype. They are the “admiring adults” that Mitra has chosen to be his allies in this unique project. Valerie, a 65-year-old from Loughborough in the UK, is trying to get the children to sing along with her as she holds up a picture of a red bus and goes:
“Wheels of the bus go round and round…swish swish swish… all day long!” Far from the strict codes of conduct children are bound by in a conventional school ambience, the kids are being allowed to run riot on the computers. More their curiosity and excitement, wider Mitra’s smile. “What seems to be a chaotic situation is actually what is making the learning happen. One needs to understand the purpose of the disorder,” he smiles. Mitra is quick to grab the microphone and simplify for the audi-
ence the objective of his Megher Koley School. “You must have noticed that if you buy a new mobile phone and give it to a child, in a few days you have to take their help in understanding the features. If they do not need to go to a school to learn this, they can pick up history and geography by themselves too.” For the wide-eyed residents of this remote village nestled in the mangroves, it’s an assurance that their children won’t be denied. Source: The March 2014
Telegraph,
A different side to the World Cup 2014
J
apanese fans who watched their national team defeated by the Ivory Coast in the Fifa World Cup showed it is possible to lose graciously, when they stayed behind after the match to help clean up! Japanese spectators armed with bin liners patrolled their side of the stadium and gathered up discarded litter. While gathering waste after a sporting event is customary in Japan, the spectators’ actions came as a shock to football fans from other countries.
18
Million, the number of Indian children who continue to die every year before their first birthday
A
s one of India’s largest equipment service providers and possibly the only organised heavy construction equipments bank that owns a number or several hundred heavy construction equipment (backhoe payloaders and cranes), it would have been reasonable to assume that Quippo Construction Equipment’s CSR agenda would have been restricted to writing out the occasional cheque. Wrong. Because over the last few years, if anything, Quippo has demonstrated a remarkable hands-on philanthropy, using what it is good at for the benefit of the city, country and world. So this is what Quippo does best: It willingly deploys its heavy equipment to clear concrete debris, fallen trees and other kinds of impediments to make Kolkata a cleaner place. “Over the last few years, we noticed a number of initiatives where our equipment could be utilised for the improvement of the city from an environmental perspective,” says Himadri
Bhattacharya, CEO, Quippo. “So when Kolkata environmental activists engaged with us around specific causes, we were able to readily offer our vehicles machinery and trained operators to do something for a winwin benefit.” Quippo’s intervention is critical for an important reason. Take something as simple as a fallen tree. Because it could weigh between 500 kgs to a tonne, most people would give it a miss and let it be where it is – and this scenario could continue for years. There is a more serious downside: fallen trees attract the attention of chop-friendly contractors with an eye on profitable sale. Even though we are a construction equipment bank, Quippo has a critical role to play. What would normally take about two dozen people across probably three days to move – which would never be organised - can be achieved in an hour by Quippo’s backhoe payloader equipment and trained operators. Its backhoe payloader, for instance, is a powerful vehicle equipment; it can push, dig and haul with speed. “Interestingly, people intending to engage in public
good back off due to the cost of engaging a backhoe payloader heavy equipment; they calculate the impact of 72 person-days of work, which could come to around H20,000, says Bhattacharya. “As a result, a number of initiatives that can transpire for the good of society never get done. On the contrary, Quippo willingly deploys equipment at zero rental and zero field cost for the benefit of the city. This means that citizens engage with us without needing to pass the hat around, a reality that often puts citizens off in the first place anyway. In doing so, we helped remove water hyacinth from choked lakes and ponds, we helped re-erect fallen trees and we helped remove long-standing debris from gardens.” Quippo has a fair track record of equipment deployment in this regard. Starting with the famous clean-up of Santragachhi Jheel in 2011. “When we first surveyed the jheel on the outskirts of Kolkata, the situation appeared virtually hopeless,” says Bhattacharya. “The 14-lac sq ft natural bird sanctuary looked like a football field. Besides, our vehicle equipment could only be positioned on the water’s edge and evacuate hyacinth that had
been brought in from the water. The faster we could evacuate, the quicker the workers could pull in the hyacinth, the faster the jheel would be cleaned and the quicker the migratory birds would be able to arrive. As a result, we played a critical role in the operation.” Quippo rose to the occasion. Its operators attacked the hyacinth across the jheel; a project that had been budgeted for 50 days was completed in 21 days. As a result, the lake was cleared for migratory birds coming in from Siberia. “We are proud to have played an unsung voluntary role in helping preserve the city’s eco-system,” concludes Bhattacharya.
Clean-up projects that Quippo was engaged in Bikramgarh Jheel clean-up Maidan clean-up Santragachhi Jheel clean-up Rabindra Sarobar clean-up
200
Million, the increase in the number of people who helped others in 2012
3
Percentage increase in the proportion of people helping a stranger globally in 2012 up from 46 percent in 2011
20.6
Percentage increase in volunteering by the global youth (15-24-year-olds) in 2012 up from 18.4 percent in 2011
244
Million, the number of Indians who donated money to charity in a typical month in 2012 (second highest in the world!)
85
Percentage of adults in Myanmar who donated money to charity in 2012 (the first position in a World Giving Index 2013 survey)
18
“When you stop giving and offering something to the rest of the world, it’s time to turn out the lights.” - George Burns
Hall of fame
D
avid Hare (born in Scotland, 1775) came to India to make a fortune as a watch-maker. While his business prospered, he was affected by the poor conditions in which the population lived. So, while most Scots returned with their fortunes, Hare decided to stay back and engage in public philanthropy. Hare felt that India needed the benefit of English education. In 1816, he attended Raja Rammohun Roy’s Atmiya Sabha, discussing the proposal to establish an English school in Kolkata, which led to the foundation of Hindu College (later Presidency College) in 1817. Most people in Hare’s position would have consolidated; on the contrary, he went ahead and established the School Book Society (to publish text books in English and Bengali) which enriched the Bengal Renaissance. In 1818, Hare established the Calcutta School Society to establish schools to teach English and Bengali according to new methods in Thanthania, Kalitala and Arpuly. What is remarkable is that he visited these schools and Hindu College every single day, his visits inspiring students like Alexander Duff and Henry Louis Vivian Derozio. Hare was a subscriber to the Ladies’ So-
ciety for Native Female Education (1824), present in its periodical examinations. When Hare died in 1842, Christian missionaries refused to allot him land in their cemeteries on the grounds that he was a non-believer. He was buried in Hare School-Presidency College, the tomb marked with a bust that is within the precincts of the College Square (Vidyasagar Udyan) swimming pool. Sivanath Sastri relates, “As his body was brought out of Mr. Gray’s house, thousands of people, some in vehicles, others on foot, followed it. The scene that was witnessed by Kolkata on that day will not be witnessed again. Right from Bowbazar crossing to Madhab Dutta’s bazaar, the entire road was flooded with people.” The road where he lived (Hare Street) is just off BBD Bagh where a life-size statue was built with public donations and installed.
The NGO that I admire “I admire Vaani run by Brinda Crisna and New Light NGO by Urmi Basu. But the NGO I admire most is Future Hope run by Tim Grandage. Through its homes, schools and medical programmes, Future Hope provides growth opportunities to street children. It is liberating to see children, whose tuition fees you paid, study in medical or engineering colleges. I strongly believe if you’ve lightened the burden of another, your work is done in this world.” - Arun Lal, former Test cricketer and commentator
“Is the rich world aware of how four billion of the six billion live? If we were aware, we would want to help out, we’d want to get involved.” - Bill Gates
Inspired by Dhoni, Ranchi takes to adopting strays
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dopting stray dogs is now flourishing among animal lovers in Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi, courtesy team India captain MS Dhoni. Ever since Dhoni adopted a stray dog and appealed to people to do the same, there has been a rush for taking care of street canines. Dr Ajay Manjhi adopted two puppies and is excited about the arrival of new members in his family. Manjhi, the chief health officer of Ranchi Municipal Corporation, said, “Street dogs also have a right to live and good food.” Street dogs are a big menace in Ranchi. With roughly 40,000 dogs, the city registers 75-125 dog bite cases everyday. Adoption might reduce the problem thanks to Dhoni! - Source: Hindustan Times, 9.01.2014
In praise of Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
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he developing world, means no school for the kids, no more food on the table and a bleak future. The estimate is that 8 million people are likely to die of cancer worldwide, the incidence being the highest in developing countries. Addressing this challenge head-on is Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. At age 25, she created a biotech company (Biocon) in her garage. Never mind that no one in the 1970s knew what biotech was, that she is a woman and that backers were hard to come by because of these two points. Today that start-up, Biocon International, is a $1 billion operation. Every year, Shaw donates $2 million to support health insurance coverage for 100,000 Indian villagers. She devoted $10 million to creating the 1,400-bed Mazumdar-Shaw Cancer Centre in Bangalore, India. When it opens this year, it will treat poor patients for free in the evenings so they can continue to work and care for their families during the day. Thank you, Dr. Shaw, for treating cancer like the global crisis it has become. - Source: TIME magazine, May 2010. Tribute by Lance Armstrong
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Everyone who has had the privilege of watching Greg Mortenson operate in Pakistan is amazed by how encyclopedically well he has come to know one of the world’s most remote regions. And many of them find themselves, almost against their will, pulled into his orbit. During the last decade, since a series of failures and accidents transformed him from a mountaineer to a humanitarian,
“A third of my time is allocated to philanthropy…”
An interview with Sajjan Bhajanka, Managing Director of Century Plyboards (I) Limited
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“I ‘adopted’ Rama, a 9-year-old girl whom HOPE volunteers had rescued off the streets, in 2004. Rama’s father had never been a part of her life. Her mother was a prostitute in Mumbai (Bombay). Had HOPE not saved her, Rama would have been sold into sex slavery and forced to work in the brothels - within a matter of days. Reunited with my now 17-year-old “daughter” on this journey (2012), I weep with gratitude. Knowing that my sponsorship has given her a chance at life - a home off the streets and away from prostitution, proper nutrition, clothing, and an education - I realise that I have received the better end of the bargain. Sponsoring Rama has cost me just $400 a year for the past seven years; but it has made me feel richer than a millionaire.” MeiMei Fox, author
Greg Mortenson: Lost... and found in Korphe (Pakistan)
fter a failed 1993 attempt to climb K2, Mortenson arrived in Korphe, emaciated and exhausted. In this impoverished community of mud and stone huts, both Mortenson’s life and the lives of northern Pakistan’s children changed course.
Interview
ohnny Depp made a voice message for a 17-year-old British girl who had been in coma for five months. On his induction to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Depp wore Dustin’s memorial bracelet of Children’s Hospice & Palliative Care Coalition, a social movement led by children’s hospitals, hospices, home health and grassroots agencies, and individuals to improve care for children with life-threatening conditions and their families.
Book extract
Arriving in Korphe with Dr. Greg, Bhangoo and I were welcomed with open arms. And as we listened to the Shia children of Korphe, one of the world’s most impoverished communities, talk about how their hopes and dreams for the future had grown exponentially since a big American arrived a decade ago to build them the first school their village had ever known, the General and I were done for.
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Mortenson has attracted what has to be one of the most under-qualified and overachieving staffs of any charitable organisation on earth. Illiterate high-altitude porters in Pakistan’s Karakoram have put down their packs to make paltry wages with him so their children can have the education they were forced to do without. A taxi driver who chanced to pick Mortenson up at the Islamabad airport sold his cab and became his fiercely dedicated “fixer.” Former Taliban fighters renounced violence and the oppression of women after meeting Mortenson and went to work with him peacefully building schools for girls. He has drawn volunteers and admirers from every stratum of Pakistan’s society and from all the warring sects of Islam.
Anyone who travels to the Central Asia Institute’s fifty-three schools with Mortenson is put to work, and in the process, becomes an advocate. And after staying up at all-night jirgas with village elders and weighing in on proposals for new projects, or showing a classroom full of excited eight-year-old girls how to use the first pencil-sharpener anyone has ever cared to give them, or teaching an impromptu class on English slang to a roomful of gravely respectful students, it is impossible to remain simply a reporter. For a man who has achieved so much, Mortenson has a remarkable lack of ego. After I agreed to write this book, he handed me a page of notepaper with dozens of names and numbers printed densely down the margin in tiny script. It was a list of his enemies. “Talk to them all,”
he said. “Let them have their say. We’ve got the results. That’s all I care about.” In a part of the world where Americans are, at best, misunderstood, and more often feared and loathed, this soft-spoken, six-foot-four former mountaineer from Montana has put together a string of improbable successes. Mortenson goes to war with the root causes of terror every time he offers a student a chance to receive a balanced education, rather than attend an extremist madrassa.
Extracted from: ‘Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time’ by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Published by Penguin Books.
Q: You are a rare instance of an industrialist (Chairman and Executive Director of Century Plyboards and Chairman of a cement manufacturing company) who devotes nearly half his time to philanthropy. How many NGOs are you associated with? About six in an active way (Friends of Tribal Society, Marwari Relief Society, Kalyan Bharti Trust, Sri Sri Academy, Bharat Chamber of Commerce and North East Officers and Professionals Welfare Association) at the present point
What started off as FTS’ pilot project has today grown to 46,966 villages and more than 51,000 schools, educating 13,35,078 tribal children (December 2012) across 25 States. This is probably the largest such project in the world.
of time. The challenge is that because I do not intend to be an armchair member in any, time management is of critical essence. The other day, I was calculating the extent of my involvement in non-business interests and came down to a figure of 120-days in a year. So you can say that a third of my time is allocated to philanthropy, a third to business and a third to recreation (Sundays included). I hope this is the work-life balance that people talk about! Q: Which organisation are you most actively associated with? Two – Marwari Relief Society and Friends of Tribal Society. For 14 years, I have been the President of the Marwari Relief Society, a philanthropic 250bed institution where almost half the beds are allocated to the under-privileged. The other organisation that I am associated with (F.T.S) is dedicated to the upliftment of tribal and
rural communities. This is a fairly unique organisation for some good reasons. One, there are a number of organisations dedicated to the cause of education in urban and rural India. At F.T.S., in a certain sense, we have extended beyond the rural – to the really rural. The places that we have in mind are remote; almost 99 per cent of our schools in India are 75-100 km from the nearest rural centre, they are generally unconnected to any motorable road, the locations have deep subsistence issues, there are areas where the per capita income is not more than H1 per day and where the living standards are much like the way they lived 100 or 200 years ago. No difference. The locals here are so poor that women in the family would have to share clothes in turns if a visitor came to see them; they would consider themselves lucky if they managed even one square meal a day (which is a reality that most Indian urbanites
find difficult to understand). I know what it is like to sit crosslegged on the floor of some of their homes and even though I consider myself to be a man of fairly frugal preferences, I actually found it difficult to eat the husked wheat meal that I had been offered. Q: To what extent has F.T.S succeeded? What started off as a pilot project has today grown to 46,966 villages and more than 51,000 schools, educating 13,35,078 tribal children (December 2012) across 25 States. This is probably the largest such project in the world. We teach 15,00,000 children, have graduated 25,00,000 already and we take in no less than 600,000 students annually. No child pays a rupee. The result is a decline in disease incidence caused by unhygienic practices, witchcraft and alcoholism in the areas of our presence. Our big picture is to establish 100,000 Ekal Vidy-
alayas throughout the country’s tribal belt by 2014-15. Q: How do you divide time between your corporate engagements and philanthropic endeavours? I rise at 4. Work 18-odd hours. Structure time for activities so I know that at 7 am, I will be reading the papers, between 9 and 930 am I will be doing reviews of our cement plant by telephone. I don’t sign any cheque for Century Plyboards; the only cheques that I sign for CMCL are in excess of H1 million; the only cheques that I sign are for the trade organisations that I represent. Waqt ko dhoondh ke nikaalna padta hai!
www.ftsindia.com
Friends of Tribal Society Ekal Bhawan 123/A, Harish Mukherjee Road, Kolkata 700026, India O: +91-33-24544510/4511 E: ftindia@vsnl.com
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“The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” - William James
“Being kind to others is a way of being good to yourself.” - Rabbi Harold Kushner
Perspective
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Tribute
The remarkable legacy of Gatubhai Lathia
“Sorry, Ms Khullar, we won’t be able to admit your son in our school!”
Mudar Patherya profiles an entire community identified by the philanthropic legacy of one man
Noni Khullar, Principal, Akshar, explains how that one line helped kickstart an educational movement for the specially-abled Prioritise. Will your school only generate 90 percenters or will it be a school that will transform the life of a child who no one wants to accept? Commit. Akshar committed years ago that it would be an inclusive school. The result is 20 per cent of our students are specially-abled, probably the highest in the country. Prepare. I would be lying if I said that accepting special children is simple. Prepare. Attend workshops. At Akshar, we run a number of workshops to train teachers in responding to needs of special children. These are attended by teachers from Shillong, Guwahati, Assam and Ranchi; they spend a week with us but none of the regular schools from Calcutta attend. A pity. Everyone is welcome; we don’t charge a dime. In fact, let me go one step ahead: if you take in special children, Akshar will source teachers for you. Reinforce. We invest each class with a special educator and a regular teacher. So our student-teacher ratio is 1:10. Which results in more attention per child. That makes us a faculty of 47 teachers for 500 students. Be flexible. At Askhar, we have children in wheel chairs so we allot classrooms according to their needs. So instead of a specially-abled child going from class 6 to 7 to 8 and up the floors, we bring the class down with his or her convenience in mind. Or if the child has a computer class on an upper floor, we ask the teacher to come down. The resource needs to come to the child, not the other way around. Train. We take newly-inducted teachers into a classroom where our teachers work with specially-abled children. We employ them a month in advance and pay them a salary even though they have really no work to do,
rupees was started; when word trickled through that some patient had passed away due to a delay in ambulance access, then the next item on the shipping list was…you get what I am saying.
but observe. That’s when much of the sensitisation happens. Communicate. Some regular Akshar children went to a party attended also by a special child (not from Akshar). Our children went and started talking to him even as other children stayed away. The parents of the special child became curious; how is that all students from one school came and spoke to her son whereas others did not? These small instances tell people a lot. Teamwork. In our cooking classes, specially-abled children find technical tasks (cutting and chopping) difficult; the other children (helpers) do that for them while the former become supervisors. On one occasion, a specially-abled child wanted to sing on Teacher’s Day but knew he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the other band members. So a stereo played the instruments for him and the others agreed to accompany him on stage and mime their act. So a special child helps create a special environment. Payback. As far as change is concerned, I can explain it with an example. Once a special child had to leave. His parent came to me and said that Akshar had given him the best it could, but now the child needed to move on to a vocational centre. Then the parent started crying.
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he businessman’s philanthropic dilemma is often a deterrent to getting started. After years of having scaled a business and built a fortune, the newly-emerged do-gooder is required to enter a new field and plan small. This prospective ‘downscaling’ often puts intending philanthropists off; they prefer to anonymously write out large cheques to existing initiatives instead. So, when Gatubhai Lathia voluntarily stepped back from active business more than three decades ago to focus full time on addressing the needs of the wanting, he began to train himself to think small. More specifically, one person at a time. So as opposed to those who think big and focus on a narrow vertical, Gatubhai widened his coverage: if the grapevine indicated
My salary for staffers’ kids: Modi Minister’s Secretariat in Ahmedabad.
Noni Khullar used to teach at a Montessori school when a couple sought admission of their lovely child with Downe’s Syndrome. No school would admit her. Inspired, Noni started a school that would accept all children. The result is Akshar in Kolkata. www.aksharschool.org
Akshar School 35 Diamond Harbour Road, Kolkata 700 027, India O: 033 24492810/3851 E: khullarnoni@gmail.com
someone was struggling to pay the family’s education fees, Gatubhai would send over an envelope; if he empathised with pedestrians in summer then the result was a free weekly ‘chhaas’ (butter milk) service; after someone came across the plight of the family members of the affected at Chittaranjan Cancer Hospital, a small meal service was started; after someone in stretched circumstances found it difficult to meet medical bills, then an anonymous word to a local dispensary resulted in half the bill being waived; if the feedback indicated that even half this waiver was still a burden, then a near-free outdoor patient department was commissioned; if someone casually remarked how humanly laborious it was for rickshwallahs to make a living, an eat-as-much-as-youwant service for a handful of
PM Narendra Modi donated the salary earned as Chief Minister in the last 13 years. According to a close aide, he intends to give away the money for a fund that would be used to educate children of the staff working at the Chief
Modi’s suitcase will also not have any of the mementos that he has received from people over the last few months during his travels across the country. In fact, he hasn’t kept any of the mementos given to him during his years as CM. He would have them auctioned every year in different districts with the highest bidder bagging items like ‘the CM’s shawl’. The money raised from these annual auctions was used for education of the girl child in the State.
In Gatubhai’s case, contrarian thinking helped. He funded projects, not reserves. The man gratefully accepted any amount. He maintained no bank account. What was collected was immediately disbursed. All spending was accounted. All accounts were scribbled on a parchi and then shredded. Once spent, he was back to square one. The result was that among philanthropists, Gatubhai never became the ‘industrialist’ out of touch with ground realities. However large his influence, he would still have tears welling when he heard a widow’s story; he would still respond with ‘chaal joiyye!’ when he heard someone he knew was in hospital. Gradually, the word spread. If Gatubhai was involved, no one needed to cross-check. Gradually, the goodwill grew; if there was a deserving project, Gatubhai could raise H500,000 before the afternoon had passed. Gradually, a community began to rediscover its spiritual ‘dayabhaav’ legacy; a number of people across the ages now pitched in to help.
One man’s commitment turned sweepingly transformative. Even though Gatubhai passed away in October 2011, his legacy outlives: each Sunday in today’s Kolkata, 3,500 people are fed nutritious vegetarian meals across ten locations; each Tuesday, 300 people are fed at Chittaranjan Cancer Hospital; each Friday, buttermilk is served to 400 people near Ajanta dhaba in Bhowanipore; each Sunday, near-free medicines are disbursed across five Kolkata locations and every single day, an OPD by Manav Jyot brings relief to patients in Robert Street for as little as H10; four buffet meals per month are provided to rickshawallahs for a nominal H8 per meal. The man who shunned recognition helped found a grateful organisation (‘Gatubhai Lathia-Prerit Sadharmi Group Bhowanipur’) with no designations, badges or positions. The other – and possibly unique - street-based initiative being managed by Kolkata’s Gujarati Jain community was inspired by its spiritually-revered Namramuni Maharaj. Recognising that philanthropic street-based piyaaoos had been inexplicably phased out over the decades leaving itinerants at the mercy of expensive bottled water, the Kolkata Gujarati community (Rawatpura, Arham Group and
What you can learn from Mother Teresa... My father spent many years at an Anglican mission in Kolkata, India, doing work similar to that of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, and always said admiringly that she was a hard nut, iron-willed and politically adept in a way that one rarely finds in the world of religious charities. She risked her credibility by taking money from former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier and let herself be trivialised by the many who sought to bask in her reputation as a modern saint.
So what lessons does she provide for the business leader? Authors Ruma Bose and Lou Faust lay out eight “Teresa principles”: ‘dream it simple, say it strong’; ‘to get to the angels, deal with the devil; wait, then pick your moment’; ‘embrace the power of doubt’; ‘discover the joy of discipline’; ‘communicate in a language people understand’; ‘pay attention to the janitor’ and ‘use the power of silence.’ - Source: By Philip Delves Broughton, 18 September 2011
Sadharmik Group) embarked on the concept of refrigerated water kiosks across Kolkata. Each kiosk (Aquaguard, Blue Star cooler, electrical-cum-water connection and 1,000 litre tank) addresses the cool purified drinking water needs of more than 500 of the city’s pedestrians and under-privileged. Estimated at around H150,000 each, more than 30 kiosks have already been commissioned. The project has been such a turn-on that bustees have created their refrigerated receptacles to enjoy the pleasures of cool water; donors are coming in faster than the capacity to commission kiosks; the community has gone on the overdrive to welcome every councilor or MLA to engage them to commission one in their terrain. One would have expected that the Sthanakwasi Jains would have commissioned these kiosks only in their community clusters. The absolutely heart-warming detail is that one of the coolers has been commissioned right under the Badi Masjid on Zakaria Street. Ah, only in secular Kolkata. Sadharmik Group can be reached at sadharmikgroup@gmail.com. Arham Group can be reached at jjgoldhouse@rediffmail.com. Manav Jyot can be reached at manavjyotkol@yahoo.in
Unsung hero Ashta Bala Maity Young achiever. At 12, spoke up on rural social issues. Accosted hoodlums for public drinking and eve teasing. Helped villagers procure ration cards. And what did she get in return? Beaten by parents for a stint at Shramajivee Mahila Samity. Escaped home at 16 to work for women’s empowerment. Got an accused arrested for raping a 12-year-old. Campaigned for a woman burnt alive by her in-laws. Currently doing remarkable work in underprivileged Namkhana (South 24 Parganas). In one word…gutsy.
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“Charity is a supreme virtue, and the great channel through which the mercy of God is passed on to mankind. It is the virtue that unites men and inspires their noblest efforts.” - Conrad Hilton
Heroes Changing OUR World.
Ramesh Chandra Parekh Businessmen and philanthropist. Funds street side water dispensing units, sponsorship of sporting events, vocational training, emergency healthcare treatment and animal welfare. Manavjyot has received patronage from them in the form of medical help for the poor and sponsorship of vocational training courses, among others. The rural (Sunday) OPD MJ6 at Gayatri ashram, in Bandel is fully-sponsored by them. Their trust Shantilal Parekh Charitable Trust (named after their parents) also provides financial aid for maintaining the gaushala in Bandel. Contact: rczenith@ gmail.com
Steve Waugh There’s a saying. While the cricketer is actively playing, you get a celebrity; after the cricketer has stopped playing, you get a wreck. Not in this case though. After his active career, Steven Waugh turned large-time towards philanthropy. So when Udayan (Barrackpore) needed to build a girls’ wing, it reached out to Steve (coincidentally passing through Kolkata during a Test match). The result was a fundraiser ‘U Nite with Steve at the Taj Bengal’ with the Aussie team and friends pitching in. Waugh sang Sinatra’s New York, New York for the audience. The result is that the girls’ wing is up and houses more than 85 girls. Amazing!
Pushkarlal Kedia A crusader of bharatiyata, Pushkarlal has authored books which are distributed free. Serving society for the last six decades, he established the Nagarik Swasthya Sangh and Manishika in 1952. In spite of being paralysed, he continues to serve society through the Shri Vishudhanand Hospital and Research Institute, a 151bed healthcare centre. He has embarked on a project worth H200-crore - Maharaj Agrasena Nyaas - on 300 bighas in Bagnan (Howrah) with a vision to establish hospitals, schools and colleges, institutions, etc. Contact: maharajaagrasain@ gmail.com
Sailen Chowdhury Blind but not beaten. Inspired by barrister, former MLA and M.P. Sadhan Gupta (97), who lost his eyesight at the age of one. As President of Rajjyo Pratibandi Sammilani, Chowdhury set up a centre for the mentally-retarded near Tarakeshwar. Also established the Anne Sullivan School for the Mentally Handicapped, Tarakeshwar Pratibandi Vidyalaya and Hellen Keller Badhir Vidyalaya. Result: More than 500 handicapped children are empowered to earn a livelihood. Someone like Anirban Mukherjee who was born blind but teaches English in Chinsurah. Contact: 9831225601
Pankaj Mullick Finally the oddball philanthropist. Focuses on paralympic swimmers. Started Bengal Paralympic Swimming Association. Provided 200 specially-abled swimmers to showcase their ability. Nominated Secretary of the National Para Triathlon Association which earned Central Government recognition. Identifies talent across the State. Trains for professional excellence. Unsung. Unrecognised. Contact: 9143041441
Suryabikash Chakrobarty During his playing days, ensured free treatment for the families of needy East Bengal footballers. When retired, he started his own NGO (Sports Ascend Welfare Society) to coach impoverished aspirants - free. Funds the NGO from his pocket. Following the Aila devastation, he helped 350 Sunderbans families with food. Helps poor families marry their daughters. Oneof-a-kind. Heart of gold.
Manoj Das Floor manager at Doordarshan for four decades. Quit his job. Started Pratisruti, an NGO that distributes wheelchairs, provides subsidised dialysis (H500 per session), home and mainstreamed education for orphans, pension for widows. Recently, Manoj saved Namita from being mistreated by tyrannies imposed by her alcoholic father in the Sunderbans and gave her a new identity - his surname. God-sent man. Contact: 9831143287
Tim Grandage ‘Uncle Tim’ collects street children the way people collect paintings. Tim saw a sick street child. Brought him home after a medical check-up. Inspired, he left his plush HSBC (Kolkata) job to pursue philanthropy full-time. His ‘Future Hope Foundation’ houses 200 children across five homes; his ‘Future Hope School’ provides them education. The school coaches children in football, rugby and chess. Thereafter, he trains them for employment. Contact: tim@futurehope.net
Rajesh Kumar Singh For children with cardiac issues, the one man most people turn to is our friend. Which includes prominent NGOs like Swami Vivekananda Welfare Organisation, Shree Ram Seva Samity Trust, Savitri Anita Seva Trust and Have A Heart Foundation, among others. Resourceful enough to access funds from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Working closely to coordinate professional cardiac care at the Rabindranath Tagore Institute of Cardiac Sciences (Mukundapur). This man surely has a heart!
Saisha Srivastava Meet this La Martinierian who is rooting for the cause of blind children. At an age when people prefer to hang out at coffee shops and hookah parlours, she conducted a 15-day dance workshop at the Calcutta Blind School and made these students dance to the tune of their hearts. Her methods of teaching: a lot of clapping, finger-clicks and gentle touch.
Chandanben Kamdar What can someone who knows acupressure do for public welfare? In this case, Chandanben perceived an opportunity. She discovered a number of people who needed medicine-less treatment. So she volunteered to provide acupressure. What started as a free service stretched for the first few weeks. Well, this good thing never stopped and Chandanben has been providing remuneration-less acupressure treatment at Kamani Jain Bhavan each Saturday for 15 years. Contact: vidhikamdar88@gmail. com
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Pot-pourri Dil Diyey Douroben! Celebrity Kolkata author selects to give back
In January 2014, thousands of Kolkatans ran the Tata Medical Center Kolkata Marathon for under-privileged cancer patients at the Tata Medical Center. Some wonderful route markers emerged: Shah Rukh Khan featured in the campaign, “My name is Khan and help me if you Khan” in which thousands of people donated H1,000 each towards a brick for the expansion and corpus. An old retired gentleman walked all the way from home in the hot sun just to buy a brick. Noomi and Prochy Mehta of Selvel generously provided free hoardings. Sourav Ganguly said, “I may not run the full Marathon but you bet I will run.” Usha Uthap composed the music of the Marathon anthem and got others to sing. Director Vishal Bhardwaj endorsed the cause – as did Waheeda Rehman, Sharmila Tagore, Aparna Sen, Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi.
Annamitra mid-day meals
Contact:coolrks786@gmail.com
Anushka Mondal Easy to mistake this young college kid for just another fun-loving type. Turns out that the young lady is a philanthropist. Philanthropist? Frequents old-age homes and orphanages. Works with NGOs. Organised a celebrity cricket match to raise funds for street children. Teaches them as well. Became ‘Secret Santa’ for more than 500 people living on the streets across whom she distributed blankets. We’ll be hearing more of her over the coming years, one is sure. Contact: anuangelrockstar@gmail.com
“My father used to say, ‘You can spend a lot of time making money. The tough time comes when you have to give it away properly.’ How to give something back, that’s the tough part in life.” - Lee Iacocca
The Annamitra initiative by the ISKCON community kitchen started in Kolkata on 2 May 2012 with 1,500 children. The programme has spread across 140 KMC schools covering 10,000 children who are provided mid-day meals. The programme is part-funded by the government (provides 100 grams of rice and financial assistance of H3.51 per plate) and part-funded through private donations. The average meal cost per child comes up to H6-6.5; the gap is plugged through private and corporate donations. This initiative is developed along the lines of Akshay Patra (Bangalore). The immediate requirements: Financial stability to scale the project (the same initiative caters to 12 lacs children in Mumbai); provisions for an automised kitchen as currently it engages 100% manual labour and transportation assistance since the food is cooked at the Baghbazaar Centre, packed in dabbas and distributed among the school children. NK Realtors, the real estate marketing firm, funds around 500 children.
Jillian Haslam grew up poor in Kolkata, went on to become a successful corporate person in London and returned to the city of her birth to engage in philanthropy. During a recent visit, Jillian engaged with Rotary Club (Salt Lake) to organise an Xmas performance by children suffering from Thalassemia at the Kolkata Medical College hospital. She also organised a medical check-up for 150 elderly people. She spent half a day at a coming together of students and teachers from five different schools in Kidderpore. On her last day, Jillian conducted self-development training for people from different walks of life at St. Thomas’ Church. She ended by getting people to work on six philanthropic initiatives for the city, offering prize money to the winning team. Jillian says, “Growing up without a hope in the world in the unforgiving back lanes of the most impoverished parts of Kolkata, I had the chance of a snowflake to emerge unscathed and successful. Yet I did it. To those who ask me how to emulate what I did, I can in all humility quote Gandhi, ‘My life is my message.’”
Financial inclusion
Reality bites
Samaritan Help Mission is helping poor women turn entrepreneurs to save them from local loan sharks. Formed in 2008, 652 women have been provided with loans since, 1,021 opened saving accounts and 74 Self-Help Groups were formed and linked to IDBI Bank and Indian Overseas Bank. In 2013, Indian Overseas Bank, Kadamtala Branch selected SHM as its Banking Correspondent, which is a kind of moving bank. This has made it possible for IOB accounts to be opened for beneficiaries in no time; beneficiaries are provided Smart Cards; training is provided to SHM staff with a Smart Card Reader for banking transactions. Champak Pradhan, Branch Manager of Indian Overseas Bank, Kadamtala Branch, said: “We have already created more than 500 accounts in Indian Overseas Bank and this number is increasing every day. On an average around 300 account holders are now depositing their hard-earned money every day in their respective bank accounts amounting to about H50 to H100 each. This will help SHM bring every slum-dweller of Jolapara under banking service and security.”
Dancing On Our Turtle’s Back, authored by scholar and activist Leanne Betasamosake and Crossfire, written by Gladson Dungdung and Sanjay Krishna, were released by NGO Adivaani in April 2014. The NGO works exclusively on protecting the adivasi culture. Dancing On Our Turtle’s Back speaks about the wiping away of indigenous people by prospectors invading their land. Crossfire is a no-holds-barred account of the role of the central and state government in the anti-Naxalite raids in the Red Corridor areas since 2009.
A new dawn Sir Syed Vocational Training Institute launched Nursing Training course for the under-privileged youth in Kolkata’s Port area. The course curriculum comprises: first aid, home nursing, hygiene and sanitation, mothercraft and child welfare. In the sixth month, each student will be placed in local nursing homes of the Kidderpore area for an internship, where he or she will be exposed to real-life experiences.
“The best portion of a good man’s life: his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.” - William Wordsworth
Merit-cum-Means G. P. Birla Scholarship launched The G. P. Birla Education Foundation offers scholarships that address students (male and female) preferably from West Bengal, who have passed Class XII exam in 2014 with 80 percent marks or more (State Board) or 85 percent or more (Central Board) or a rank in the top 15,000 in AIEEE/JEE/AIPMT tests and needing financial support to pursue studies in Science, Humanities, Engineering, Medicine, Architecture, Commerce or Law streams from any recognised University. The scholarship covers tuition and hostel fees, subject to a ceiling of H50,000 per student per year. Applications can be made to www. gpbirlaedufoundation.com or to G. P. Birla Educational Foundation, 1582, Rajdanga Main Road, Southend Conclave, Kolkata 700107.
The Education Crisis Scholarship by HDFC Bank Following the successful pilot of ‘Educational Crisis Scholarship Support (ECSS) programme’, HDFC Bank launched the same programme in 2014 pan-India, soliciting applications from deserving students. ECSS is a special scholarship for students studying in private/government-aided schools, who, due to financial constraints, are unable to bear the cost of education and are at the risk of dropping out.
US President John F. Kennedy’s salary was $100,000 (an additional $50,000 for expenses). He refused the salary and donated the full amount to charity.
Say cheese!
Mr. Giovanni Corsi, an Italian photographer, held a 15-day workshop for the children of Apanjan and Anandaghar in Kolkata (run by OFFER for orphans, street children, children living with HIV/AIDS and specially-abled children). Photographs clicked by the children were put up on billboards. Myriad of emotions were captured beautifully reaffirming the fact that each child is special. Optimum support, right platform, nurturing and unconditional love can make a difference.
6 ways in which we can teach our children philanthropy 1 A 2009 study indicated that 92% respondents named their spouse or partner as the main person who influenced them in charitable giving. So make sure your partner and you are on the same page before engaging your kids. 2 Talk about your charitable passion with your children, including favourite causes and what you do to support them. Enthusiasm is contagious. Help your child choose which toys, books, or clothes to give away. 3 Involve them in decision-making. Encourage your children to adopt their own causes and integrate those causes into your family’s charitable decision-making. 4 Volunteer as a family. As Susan Price writes in her book, The Giving Family, “Volunteering is one of the best ways to build a child’s character and self-esteem. Children who volunteer acquire new skills, develop confidence and maturity, put their own problems in perspective, meet people from other backgrounds and learn teamwork and civic responsibility… For families, volunteering is a good way to spend quality time together, to share experiences, establish traditions and have fun, all while helping the community.” 5 Teach financial literacy. The ‘threepart allowance’—with equal amounts set aside each week for spending, saving, and giving—has become popular teaching tool. 6 Create a dedicated account for giving. There are numerous vehicles available, including the simple opening of a giving-specific bank account. - By Cynthia Strauss, Director of Research, Fidelity Charitable
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“Life’s persistent and most urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?’” - Martin Luther King Jr.
Last word Mudar Patherya conducts an interview with his inner self
“Graduating from financial returns to social wealth” Q: Would you describe yourself as financially comfortable? A: There are different ways of describing financial comfort or affluence: One, total assets divided by annual expenditure, which is to say that if one has liquid assets of H1 crore divided by an annual expenditure of H1 lac, then one has effectively provided for 100 years of one’s sustenance. Most individuals have earned for the next few centuries! Q: Are there any other measures that you feel are relevant in indexing whether one has earned enough? A: There is – a safe one. Assuming one has monetisable assets of H10 crore then at a post-tax return of 9%, one could effectively earn a monthly return of H7.5 lacs. If one assumes a monthly expenditure of H2 lacs, then the expense cover of nearly 3.75x is not only comfortable but provides an opportunity to further reinvest the surplus (7.5 – 2 lacs) to generate an even bigger surplus. Someone who has this kind of income is compre-
hensively provided for up to the end of his/her life. Q: So can one stop working? A: Interesting question. There are a number of ways to answer this. The usual safe response: ‘No, it is the duty of every person to live the life of a karmayogi’, which in other words means keep pushing yourself until you cop it with your harness on. Two, a more guarded response: Yes, perhaps stop working at something which may be stressing and graduate to things that truly excite, whether you make money through it or not (which is not important any more for the person, right?). Q: You are actually saying ‘quit.’ A: Or otherwise keep slogging 14 hours a day until 72 only to realise I would have to live 438 years for all my money to be spent! There’s another perspective – what’s the big idea of working to enhance profits for shareholders who are anyway well off? What landscape would I be altering? What constituency would I
be truly enriching (assuming I am not spending 20% of my PAT on CSR)? Q: So does the marginal utility of income actually decline beyond a point? A: Smart boy. After your dream home (500 sq ft/person), weekend home, best car, provisions for children plus cash for the unforeseen, you are not likely to go to a restaurant four days a week and nor are you likely to eat eight pizzas for breakfast. So after a point, making money could well be like collecting paper; a ten-bagger on the stock market excites because you proved you were good at the game but not because of the ways you might be able to spend it. Ironical. Q: So Catch-22 for the rich, right? A: Yes and no. Yes – for all the reasons mentioned. No – because, as an intelligent
person will explain, the trick lies in making a big impact with the money or using it in a way that has perhaps not been used. And by this one means graduating beyond the creation of financial wealth to the creation of social wealth. In India, this is really the final frontier. The challenge: What bigger and more enduring payback can we get for our buck? So what may turn on an individual like me is not a 10% return on invested capital but a 500% social return. Which probably explains why Andrew Carnegie endowed $60 million to fund 1,689 libraries; why Narayan Murthy went on to become one of India’s most influential advocates for healthcare and rural development through Infosys Foundation; why Mohandas Pai set up the Akshaya Patra Foundation (Bangalore) in 2000, a mid-day meal programme that feeds
The trick lies in making a big impact with the money or and by this one means graduating beyond the creation of financial wealth to the creation of social wealth. In India this is really the final frontier.
more than 1.3 million children every single day. These individuals recognised the futility of personal resource building beyond a point and extended to the creation of social wealth. Q: So should people step out of business and focus on philanthropy? A: Various models exist. Three generations of my friend Navin Dugar’s family stepped out of business at 50; they set up a 1200-acre university in remote Rajasthan; Bimla Poddar did so at 60 and set up a heritage museum in Varanasi; Jain Irrigation markets tissue culture plantlets, fertigation and drip irrigation systems and in doing so has transformed district after district through increased crop yields which has lifted thousands – yes, thousands! – out of poverty. Would one advise the Jains to step off the business because they have earned enough for generations? No way! Not because the stock would collapse if they did so but that this might stop the rural prosperity engine that they have created.
Q: Bottomline? A: It is ironical that by the time most of us make enough money to live three lifetimes, we are still young enough to shift our attention; by the time we realise we have made money for three lifetimes we are past our prime; by the time we begin to invest in social capital we are probably weak of mind, body or spirit. So the models I have are people like Sajjan Bhajanka, MD of Century Plyboards, who dedicates a third of his year to philanthropy even as he runs one of India’s largest plywood companies; DR Mehta who headed SEBI and was concurrently a legend in the world of the physically-challenged; Bill Gates who extended his Microsoft obsession to malaria eradication; Bono who combined singing with activism. These are models that Kolkata needs. We need more professionals, businessmen and industrialists to engage in public good from a visible perspective to widen the movement.