Why to do "Social Work"?

In our religions, they say that we get lots of  “Punya” if we given even a glass of water to the thirsty. Having jointly given over 55 lakh litres in the past 26 days to the reallllly thirsty, we all have collected enough blessings to last a few lifetimesJ.

But seriously speaking, I would like to make a few observations on social work. I have seen many social workers become bitter because the recipients or society do not recognize or appreciate or honor their devotion to others.  Most people do social work because “they feel good” or because it “reduces their guilt of being in a better life situation than others less fortunate” or because as a friend said “I was so happy to see the beggar’s smile as I gave her some money.”

That is a trap. When your mind starts calculating the benefit it gives oneself, then the reaction of others determine your happiness and bitterness. You become happy/sad based on other people’s reactions.

My reading of what to do in a moral dilemma led me to study ethics and hence Mahabharata, Ramayana and Western ethical philosophies.

Immanuel Kant (18^th Century, Prussian philosopher) says that “Do the right thing because it is right”, for no reason except that it is the right thing to do.

If you interpolate it with Bhagwad Geeta’s shloka Ch 2: 47, which says “keep on doing your work without expecting any reward”, then we have a philosophy that is appealing

“Do the right thing without expecting any reward” 

Action Plan for Beed Drought - 1

Water is never created inside the earth. It goes from the ground to the underground, filtered through various levels. This water goes and gets stored below the surface at different levels. Earth is the best underground water tank reservoir which is natural, does not evaporate and has huge unlimited capacity. And it belongs to everyone. Water below the surface has been in existence for thousands and thousands of years. Even before mankind.

But, we have stopped respecting nature, water has been taken for granted and now we are staring at scarcity of water. Water that comes from rains is allowed to flow away. 40% of the water flows away and is frittered, 30% is absorbed by plants without planning and balance goes into the ground. Multiple bore wells are drilled at competing depths for pulling the water from the earth’s storage without replenishing it. The richer the farmer, the deeper his bore well is drilled, so that he gets more water than his neighbors.

But the access to the underground water storage by these bore wells must now be used to refill the underground water. Water from rooftops, water streams of the surface and other rainwater drains should be converged and use to recharge existing bore wells and wells.

All other ways of water conservation are costly and less effective than the recharging bore wells. Compared to creating a water pond of 50000 litres costing Rs75,000, recharging of bore well stores 1,00,000 to 10,00,000 litres for an approximate cost of Rs.12500 and if we charge sufficient borewells in every village, there will never be water drought ever.

Each village has around 5 to 8 public bore wells. From today, our team in Parli has begun surveying 5-10 public bore wells each in 15 villages.

Present state of villages and people

The fourth drought in last six years has reduced water table drastically. Water is available far away. People, especially women and girls have to walk long distances in the sun for water. And finally they can carry just two or three vessels per trip. Many villagers do not have footwear too. Also cattle become last priority in using water .

There is just one crop per year due to scarcity of water. Soyabean and cotton are main crops.

Due to water table going down, richer farmer make multiple borewells that go deeper and suck away the water. The poorer farmers and landless labour have access to mostly public water bodies.

There are just 2 solar electric poles in the village of 1200 people in Gopalpur and there is no activity after dark.

Most able bodied people are not satisfied with Rs.180 per day MNREGA scheme and they leave their parents, small children and village to go to other places to work in sugarcane factories at Rs.250 – 300 per day. They are taken by contractors in trucks and they come back after a few months.

Life is Grim. 

Middle-aged and Elder Villagers are resigned to fate and have lost the spirit to fight. Abject poverty, injustice and drought-after-droughts have brought them to their knees. Our volunteer was mentioning a graduate couple in Gopalpur Village, who lives in a kacha house with a tin roof that heats up during the day (Summers are upto 43 degrees) that breaks down often and gets filled with water during monsoon and cooks on smoke filling wood. They think that this is the only way to life and have resigned to their fate. That is the average life.

The young want a better life and one anecdote is of our volunteer Renu (a professor of Mass Media in Mumbai) meeting a group of sharp, intelligent youngsters in a small village called Mamdapur. One of the youngster interspersed his talk with English words and when asked by Renu, he said that he has an Oxford dictionary at home, where he learns 50 new words every day. He and others deserve a better life.

500 metres outside Gopalpur village is a “Tanda” where the most backward caste people live without any road, water or electricity. Discrimination is not based on economy but on caste. 

Caste dynamics play a very important role. But there is no physical conflicts in these villages due to caste or religion. The injustice is subtle.

Shameless Begging

Since I have begun supplying water tankers to villages in Beed, a few thoughts have come to my mind, which I thought of sharing.

I was taught that there are three key things in life - siksha, diksha and bhiksha.

Siksha was learning about existing knowledge. Our education system is made of learning subjects and theories that have been written or taught by others. Lectures, speeches, readings are all about siksha.

Diksha was about starting the creative spark within one's self. It may happen due to some personal meditation, intuition, reflection or energy transmission from someone.

I was comfortable with both these processes, but I used to shy away from asking for anything  - bhiksha or begging. My false ego prevented me from asking anyone for money or favours. I used to call that asking as "indecent". In earlier times, common people's children and even the king's prince used to go door to door asking for food. A king has the money to buy the best for his children, but the act of begging or bhiksha was an antidote to the ego.

So, this time when we started water supply in Beed, we had to ask donors for money. But I suddenly found that my diffidence for asking for money was gone. When people had doubts or questions regarding the integrity of the expense, my ego would have earlier raised its head and I would have felt hurt that people asked ME for justification. But, now I do not think that and I feel that it is our duty to be very transparent and accountable for every rupee that we get.

A few days back, someone invited me for his daughter's birthday (I have not attending social functions since over a decade) - I agreed, provided he gave money for the drought. When an old friend invited me for dinner, I agreed, provided he donated. Have become a shameless beggar. I was not asking for anything for myself but for others. Maybe the ego has taken a beating.

So, while serving others - maybe some personal growth has taken place within too. 

Highly condemnable - AAP/Cong morcha against PIT

Remember a decade or so back, India-pak were hyphenated (meaning that when anyone spoke about Pak , they linked it to India and vice-versa) in global politics. Every UN Council meeting was hijacked by Pak on the Kashmir issue. India had to go to all  countries trying to justify our stand on Kashmir. If US or UK said that "Kashmir is India-Pak problem and they should settle it amongst themselves", we all congratulated ourselves. And then the next global seminar or event happened and we had to again go around to all major countries, trying to get their certificates. Pak's per capita income was higher than India and we both were in shadow of each other. US, Europe, China, Bangladesh and even Nepal and Sri Lanka used this conflict to get advantage vis-a-vis India.  All countries played one against the other. 

But all that changed, basically with Atal Vajpayee. Kargil happened and India did not attack but kept on putting pressure. The world stood by India as it rebuffed the lies and betrayal by Pak. Then, like the statesman that he was, Atal met Musharaff in Agra to resolve diplomatically. He was betrayed, but the world realized that India was taking the initiative like a matured, responsible nation.India was different from Pak in their attitude was visible. The de-hyphenation had started. 

US reduced their support and aids to Pak. The world started respecting India and money, people and work started flowing into India from all over. The per capita income is now solidly in favour of India and growing. (2001 - Pak $511 India $466, 2015 - Pak $1361, India $1581 (source World Bank)) After the Mumbai attack, Pak was branded as a rogue and failed state. Now, India is a success story and Pak a dangerous one. 

We are now standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the biggest nations on the Earth and that has lot to do with our fortitude, our confidence, our maturity and our democracy. Modi, for all his faults, has started re-positioning our nation in the geopolitical leaders. If this country has to grow and reclaim its position as a great nation, we need to act like leaders and not reactionaries. 

Modi is behaving like a statesman as far as international politics is concerned. He is building India as a powerful, sensible and growth-oriented nation across the globe. He may have been failing in some spheres inside the nation, but some of his global moves have been unexceptional.  

Like Shivsena, many have enmity with Pakistan as part of their psyche. Pak has betrayed and bled our country many many time and may continue to do so, but can anyone deny that the situation since India has started people-2-people relationship, since they have started business relations changed the perception. Kashmir is far less violent, globally Pak is isolated and Sharif won on basically pro-india stance. We would like different neighbours, but that is not going to happen. We have to handle Pak - firmly but reach out to their civil society and people over the heads of the government and the army.  Remember there is no single Pak - there is govt, army, extremists, civil society, general public - all having different views and agendas.

So, when Modi talks to Sharif or goes for tea to break the ice, it is not cowardice - but statesmanship. When we have enough proof on the Pathankot blasts, and we strategically allow their team to come to embarrass Pak and precipitate the issue-it is again giving a great message to the world, about how serious we are to solve the problems.

But for Cong and AAP to have morchas at Pathankot against the investigative Pak team on what is essentially country's foreign policy is ridiculous and needs to be condemned. A certain decorum and unity is needed without trying to use these initiatives for internal politics and one-upmanship. Glad that the Govt reacted with silence and contempt on these protests. 

It is possible that this may fail, as many before them.But one should keep trying, there is no better alternative. And we are winning this invisible war - lets take it further.

Mission Mumbai part 3 - grass root democracy

I once spoke to the then- MMRDA Chairman about the need for engagement with the local people before making a city plan. He told me "What does a paanwala or shopkeeper know about planning?" I retorted "The paanwala probably knows more about where to locate the market, parking and local road more than these foreign planners" and in an excess of anger I added "Whose city is it? Yours or the people of Mumbai".

That is the real problem. Not only is there no institutional process to engagement with the real stakeholders, but the decision makers do not even acknowledge that citizens need to be consulted. It is so different from other democracies in the world, where citizens are the primary stakeholders in most decisions that affect them and structures are built for people-consultation. 

For example, when Bill Clinton was the President of the USA and probably the most important man in the world, and he wanted to change the outer facade of his house, he had to go and seek permission from the local borough (kind of local neighborhood government). That is the kind of power that the local government wields.

During my urban planning phase, I went and stayed with an Indian-origin city planner in a small town called The City Of Ventura in California, US. They made the master plan for the town, then uploaded it on their website, communicated it to all citizens and after 2 weeks, in the town hall, citizen, mayors, elected representative, the architect came together and they discussed some of the crucial changes suggested by the locals. The following week, the architect brought in the revised plan and then finalized the same. That is the citizen interaction that is needed. http://www.cityofventura.net/. Every weekend citizens volunteer to clean the beach, do community service and be involved and engaged with the city.

In rural India, after the restructuring based on the Panchayati Raj Bill, there is now, one elected representative for around 425 people. In Mumbai there is one elected representative viz the municipal corporators for every 55000 people. Therefore democracy in Mumbai is 110 times away compared to rural India. So, in villages, there is low economy but good democratic governance, while Mumbai has high contribution to economy but lesser democracy.

There are 3 levels of urban governance today- the central govt, the state government and the local government. Is that good enough? I believe that there should be one more tier of governance structure.

In cities, this additional level is in the spirit of the 74th amendment on devolution of power to the people. A tier that is much closer to the people. A polling booth is made up of 1100 voters. If we can create a mohalla Sabha of 3 polling booths, then we would have around 10 to 12 mohalla sabhas in each corporators ward. Hence an elected representative that is accountable between 3000 to 4000 voters.

Along with Municipal elections, mohalla Sabha elections should take place. So, two electronic voting machines would be placed and votes cast, one for the corporators and one for the mohalla Sabha representative. These mohalla sabhas representatives along with the corporators will form a Ward Sabha, with the elected corporators as the Chairman of the Ward Sabha. The staff of the Municipal Corporation will work under the instruction and guidance of the Ward Sabha.

This ward Sabha will now start taking all decisions, instead of the Corporator, on various issues like the planning, supervision of maintenance of parks, gardens, roads, footpaths and other infrastructure of the locality. It will help the EC in voter list enumeration, ration card issues, getting proper municipal service as well as police support. Most importantly, it will create a budget planning of their area and then monitor and supervise implementation of all activities.

This will also reduce corruption and pilferage of government treasury. The feeling of alienation that city-people feel will also get reduced due to these neighborhoods.

What needs to be done is to plan the funds, functions and functionaries based on mohalla Sabha, corporation and state parastatal bodies. 

Gandhiji believed that the whole basis of government was that it could provide individuals the opportunity to participate in the management of their own affairs and self-government. 

Resignation from National Executive

11th Nov 2015 12.19 hours

Dear Arvind and my other friends,

I have been losing interest in politics for some time, and I think that it is unfair to continue to be a member of NE with this mindset. You are requested to please accept my resignation from the NE with immediate effect. Hope that you will find some capable representatives from Maharashtra.

It has been a wonderful experience working with many of you from Jan 2011 and being part of the change in this country. I pray and hope that this transformation continue and accelerate in the coming months and years and lead to a resurgent India. Arvind, India has a lot of hopes from you.

Jai Hind.

Love

Mayank Gandhi