Conversation with Mr. Raghuraman

Met Mr. Raghuraman K. (Head – L&D, OD & Corporate Communications of DRF) on 1st April 2008. Few of my inferences listed below, after our conversation:

1. The last batch of LAB school was at Abids, which got completed. Also got a clarity that they target the BPL group who are incapable of earning a livelihood.

2. There are currently no LAB schools in the city. Mostly because they are not getting enough aspirants.

3. Also, we were discussing on how do you trust people if they are below poverty line since; it’s easy for anyone to trick and prove that they are BPL and avail the benefits. Ironically these days, whether they can afford a square meal or not, they must possess a cell phone. Priorities in life have changed for them in the urban area. He cleared that they have to believe them through the word of mouth unlike the government which checks on the credentials through income certificates etc.

4. The focus of DRF is shifted from LABS to rural livelihood programmes to decrease migration and inculcate more opportunities in the rural area. This would help in a way to provide ample opportunities in rural area and help the families there; not get separated from their children especially boys who move out to cities in search of lucrative offers leaving them deserted and distressed. (*Quite a thoughtful point I must say).

5. There’s an Integrated Livelihood Programme called ILP run by DRF which is of a similar objective to Anand Bharati that he brought to my notice.

6. He also said he would introduce me to Ms. Mridula someone who is heading the ILP department so that we can pay a visit to one of the schools sometime and get an experience.

7. Apart from this he said we can visit their primary English medium schools called Pudami too which are built in the slum areas for again the weaker sections.

8. Last week of April with DRF, as head of the committee there’s an NGO meet and Conference for the abilities Mela, which is being conducted at the IAS Officers’. ( I remember last year I had visited one of this and that’s where I met Subba Rao, from Satyam Foundation). We can be a part of this Mela too, some kind of volunteering activity that we may expect out of this. The nature can be discussed later.

My thoughts..!

Guys it may be too lengthy but trust me i couldn't edit it more :-)

Post interactions I understand we had successfully zeroed on children/Women as our target group which needs support or rather our services, but how is what needs to be defined effectively! It's clearly understood that our main objective is to raise the standard of living of people who are below the poverty line, as that's the section which is most deprived of isn't?? It's indeed necessary that we have a good brainstorming session on this but before that I guess we should have the facts in hands before we venture out into something of this big a challenge… It's very essential to have our facts and figures in place as this may involve a lot of legal and non legal affairs in the upcoming times as and when we progress hopefully. And I guess our efforts in whatever ways are not going waste, as we indeed should research this well in advance before plunging into it blindly! Such initiatives always help when it's well researched, aggressively thought and discussed with its pros and cons.

Now I came across this link which is very informative http://www.wakeupcall.org/about_us/about_us.php (Visit this page, which may help us connect with them at our current situation)........... http://www.wakeupcall.org/administration_in_india/world_class_governance.php (the whole site has to be explored well…yet another informative & interesting page) …not sure how many of you would have come across but, request you all to study this carefully and please think and then come up with your ideas as to how we can constructively frame our OBJECTIVE and achieve them.

My take on the whole Objective is pretty clear as in we intend to bring a change in the life of an individual by helping him/her get a better standard of living through the means of education, better livelihood ! He should feel one amongst us. The next move is not clear as in how to start off and where to start from…?

A few queries strikes my mind mostly and they are -

* Are we heading towards building another NGO? If yes, then we need to interact with a few NGOs and understand the challenges they face, how they capture projects...how much funds are required etc etc etc. We need to build a project on this itself if we intend to form one.

* How much time and efforts or homework we need to invest per day / per week / per person to drive this religiously?

* Should this be treated as a priority in each one of our lives since it's at such a nascent stage…?

* Should we build contacts and seek projects..?(What kind of projects that needs to be addressed… http://www.wakeupcall.org/Future_Projects/Projects.php )

* Should we seek some advice from people who have deeper experience? I think we should…as it may open up a lot of our doubts in mind.

* Asking again that we as in the members of this initiative need to identify each one of our strengths to be put in use for our cause!

That's all for now!

Trip to one of the Dr. Reddy's Foundation's LABS (Livelihood Advancement Business Schools)

Date and Time: 7^th March 2008, Friday @ 11.30 AM.

Place: Dr Reddy's Foundation (DRF) LABS at Abids

Aish and I headed towards an impromptu meeting to abids; where DRF vocational course is running or rather coming to a closure for this particular batch. A handful of guys and gals were present who were undergoing the sessions there. Mr. Devi Prasad (PRO at Reddy Foundations) accompanied us all the way and the interaction begun with the aspirants’ (Reddy Foundations prefer this name for the students joining LABS) brief introduction. With this we got a fair idea about the aspirants’ background…where they are coming from, their family background, what they intend to do next after their programme and how did the course help them so far. Mostly their family backgrounds were financially weak is what I could infer and each one of them were thriving to hone their skills there at LABS center…but, remorsefully the strength of the aspirants was too low.

After this introduction we introduced ourselves and our purpose to visit them. Aish had neatly laid down the links about Anand Bharathi’s kids and their chances of being a part of Reddy’s livelihood plan. He also explained that our visit was also to develop a relation with them informally and see how we can help each other mutually.

Well we didn’t know what to talk about next and what not...but we ended up discussing and motivating them that they need to work upon their grey areas, be consistent in their efforts, improve their communication skills, read and create awareness, and move forward and do something on their own & shape their careers and build a beautiful future for themselves.. Also, we had set a few examples and explained that they could be a part of that league too, where they can set examples in future. Not just this but we encouraged them to spread this amongst their peer members … so that many more like them can benefit a life out of it.

Overall it was a good experience …and there was indeed a good deal of change that we observed in them. Sheer confidence, hope that they would earn a living for themselves and raise the standard of living for themselves and their families too. Some of them were already roped in for some jobs that of a hardware engineer and Data entry operators and rest were in the process of getting placed.

Few things that I guess I extracted out of the whole affair were,

1. If any one of us in our vicinity is aware about anyone who needs an assistance of this kind or an opportunity… we can guide them to take up a course like this though LABS.

2. Try to spread this programme as much we can. I don’t mean that we would sell on behalf of Reddy’s Foundation but just create awareness in the sense that…recently I had discussed about this instance with my home-maid who was enthusiastic for her kids, as she is finding it tough financially, for her girl child is going to some nearby English medium school and she made her plans to stop sending her to the school.

3. Visiting such aspirants once a while can motivate them to an extent. Not sure even if it does but can keep trying until we make an impact J

Some Hope...!

Badhri, Aish and I have been discussing aggressively on our next steps.. its weird but we have done that over the cups of coffee, .breakfast ;-) and also amidst heavy traffic while walking and talking..! We were just dabbling our hands into this and that when we finally concluded that Reddy Foundation discussion has to be taken forward, a visit to Anand Bharathi for a whole day event and extract some important information from an NGO Naandi.Org in terms of their functions so that we may get some direction for our next motive!

I initiated to fish out the contact numbers of Reddy Foundation, and somehow I felt like talking to them directly…and that’s how I got to speak with Mr. Devi Prasad, Chief of Corporate Communications of Reddy Foundation Group. Well, it turned out to be quite productive and informative too…The summary listed below for your reference:

Reddy Foundations, Hyderabad

Contact Nos: 040-65343424, 040-23304199, 040-23301868

• Reddy Foundation is focusing chiefly on Livelihood and education programmes for an age-group of 3-25 year olds..
• They have so far 13 primary schools upto 3^rd standard addressing quality education. They provide, meals, uniform and study materials to the children. Also support some govt. schools
• Their Education Resource Center lays down the course materials.
• They also cater to vocational courses between 18-35 age group. Theyhave 30 such courses, for 3 months duration. Target Audience being, school dropouts/ below poverty lines/youth). They have a placement cell too which grooms them and prepares them for job.
• They conduct road shows to create awareness as one of their mediums and then conduct an Interest Elementary Test to identify their skills and counsel them or guide them for an appropriate course.
• 3 Chief divisions for vocational courses are, ITS (IT Enabled Service), Customer Relations, and White Good Services.
• They intend to build “Neighborhood Schools” in the coming year, which would upgrade the education from 3^rd standard to 12^th Standard.
• They have also tied up with Agha Khan Foundation which aids training to teachers; provide innovative ideas to teachers to motivate children to attend regular schools.
• They have been successful in providing livelihoods to 1,35000 people across the nation.
• They also generate lot of rural development programmes.

Well Devi Prasad proposed us to meet up and discuss the possibility to partner with them and can work out a way to mutually benefit in the long run. He also discussed a possibility if we can drive one of their Livelihood Advanced Business School programmes in any area in Hyderabad. All this would be discussed at his end with the Director of Education of Reddy Foundation Group... Hence that introductory email was sent out. Lets see how positively he responds else, would follow up with him on Monday morning if he received the mail etc etc.

Key Issues - Women's Development, Children, Poverty

1. Water
2. Education
3. Health
4. Agriculture
5. Environment
6. Natural Resources
7. Micro Finance
8. Population
9. Disability
10. Housing
11. Emergency Relief
12. Human Rights
13. Displacement
14. Forest Land Rights and Tribals
15. Child Rights
16. Women Empowerment
17. Right To information
18. Right to food
19. Panchayati Raj
20. Peace
21. Animal Welfare
22. Labour Rights

Issues

1. Employment Generation: capacity Building, implementation, Monitoring, and asset building.
2. Sustainable Livelihoods – Institutional models and approaches to promote sustainable livelihoods for the poor and marginalized.
3. Entrepreneurship development – support through marketing and financial linkages, business and development services.
4. Skill development – Through vocational education and technical writing for unorganized sector and women.
5. Condition of work – improved work condition for unorganized workers and workplace policies for HIV
6. Social protection: provision of social security to unorganized sector workers.
7. Organizing workers in the unorganized sector.

Am sure…after looking at the above scattered points you all may wonder what’s this…but trust me that’s what I have been thinking as a first step to build a strategy towards our AIM…we essentially need to list out the issues that need attention or areas where we can invest our time and services which would eventually bring a change in the standard of living of society. After exploring a bit ...ideally there were lots of issues (listed above)… but according to me there were three primary subjects that intertwined and laid to various problems. POVERTY, WOMEN AND CHILDREN. If you look at it in a broader way, lack of women’s development lead to various problems like lack of awareness, lack of self development, poverty and eventually it impacts the society on the whole. For instance in a family which is below poverty line if the women of the household is educated (to an extent or instilled confidence), groomed she can contribute majorly towards the financial development of the household and can cater to the basic necessities of the family! This would further add on to better raised children who can further go to schools and get the primary education or develop a positive outlook towards an educated sect of the community. So the point is we can create awareness amongst the women or prefer to groom the children who serve to be the future of our nation.

Our Initiative..!!

There’s no denying the fact that India has come a long way since 15th August 1947 economically on the global front...but the progress has been only on a superficial level...at a grassroot level there’s still so much to do…so much pain and agony for the majority of Indian population. Today Politics has become a money-making profession; the zeal to work towards the development of people is no more visible in the eyes of our politicians. And we as citizens are equally responsible for the change, as Gandhiji has rightly said “Be the change you want to see in the world”.

Aishwarya and myself have been discussing on this subject for quiet some time about how we can bring in the change...and I am glad now we seriously wish to materialise it. There are so many issues prevalent in India, on a national level, state level, metro level, district level and village level...each unique on its own and severe enough to draw our attention..We were wondering which stream to target first, how do we begin with, but the bottomline was we genuinely wanted to reach out and exted our support in whatever ways we can..! Now we have Badri too with similar thought processes and hence i wish all three of us jointly can initiate this and make it really sucessful. Its our collective initiative to unselfishly help those sections of society which needs our support and assistance!

Would truly appreciate further suggestions/plans/ideas etc to work on this actively.

Cheers!!