1.0 Introduction
Revolutions or for that matter any social Change can be brought about by technology , policy and people. The people factor is so crucial because while the other two are broadly catalyst , the third becomes the real agents of change. The challenge enormous, as it needs to be “unfreezed” from its status-quo (socio-economic norms) by
• ‘Dis’-incentivizing the status-quo (Communication)
• Incentivizing the change -------
2.0 The Social Agent :
What it takes to be a social catalyst ? or a Social Agent ?
Before deciphering the strategy of a social catalyst , It is important to first understand , What it takes to be a social Agent ?
3.o The action-model for the social catalyst ( Strategy to initiate and complement CIVIC GROUP EFFORTS)
4.0 The Strategy
Lack of Civic Sensitivities in Indians ?
We need to turn this problem upside down to find solution. We first inquire What are the core issues that make Indian’s so insensitive!
.
Few observations.
• A missing story is one of people themselves acting as citizens to change the society they live in, not as needy beneficiaries, participants, political clients or economic producers and consumers, but as agents of their own future. People do not necessarily treat citizenship as a significant aspect of their being.
• The whole issue of Indians can be summed up in because of bad experience with politics and corruption, Indians have shied away from civic and community life. When there is good news, such as the Indian national cricket team playing in the world cup event, more Indians feel good and come out of their self-imposed isolation; however, when there is a bad news, we tend to hide and ignore the reality of civic life.
We believe, the core issue underlying to the problem of lack of civil inclination towards Society (social work or donations for social cause) is that Indians have a bad affliction of learned helplessness.
There are several aspects of human helplessness that have no counterpart among other animals. One of the most intriguing aspects is "vicarious learning (or modeling)": that people can learn to be helpless through observing another person encountering uncontrollable events
(They have seen failed governance and at the top of it they have not seen enough proof with success stories from NGO’s either). This is the bane of India’s lack of sensitivity to civic issues).
The Various Causes of this learned helplessness are
1. NGO Efficacy ? There is a huge suspicion among general public about efficacies of NGO this is linked to individual corruption of workers.
2. High Corruption: People believe that there is large scale misappropriation of donations.
3. Drop of water in the ocean effect: There is too much poverty for my contribution to make any effect. Only donations of Carores can make a difference .On other hand corporate feel that it will sink into ocean as they wont be able to keep a track of it.
4. Desensitization to poverty: There is not enough resources for everybody to be well of therefore there is no solution.
Solution? If you can’t break the ice , drown it .
Strategy of Action:
Strategy 1 :: Strategy to increase the Accountability of NGO
To increase accountability in NGO’s and consequently public trust
• Disclosure statements and reports are among the most widely used tools of accountability and are frequently required by federal or state laws in many countries. In the past it was understandable that keeping and providing minutest of details was often a gigantic and well nigh impossible task however, with the wide spread use of computers it is possible to record and publish on the web the minutest of details. For example the NGO can disclose the name of all donors and the amounts.
• What Smile Foundation can do is collate and publish such reports on the web. Also a detailed record of expenses incurred and Projects financed should be published so that even the layman can add the donation total and the Expenditure total and be assured about the proper utilization of money.
• While important, these external approaches have only limited potential for encouraging organizations and individuals to take internal responsibility for shaping their organizational mission, values, and performance or for promoting ethical behaviour.
Strategy 2: Work Done! Well Done!! But, did you communicate it well enough ?
Focus on Communication to All the concerned stakeholders- the volunteers, the donors, the people at large.( This Will help to “unlearn “ the learned helplessness. )
• Evaluation of performance is an appraisal tool increasingly used called logical framework analysis (LFA). The logical framework is a matrix in which a projects objectives and expected results are clearly identified, along with a list of indicators that are to be used in measuring and verifying progress toward achieving those objectives and results.
• Quantifiable change will make people believe that change is possible even in the most disheartening situation and that a thousand mile journey begins with a first step.
Strategy 3: The Strategy to interest more people in Civic Service : “Inspire by Incentivizing”
Implementation:
(A) For Youth:
• The points of Youth Achievement and Professional Development should be highlighted.
• Link to Schools, colleges & Universities .Senior Level schools should incorporate one field work course in civil service. All graduate and postgraduate courses should have one credit course /non credit course spread over alternate years in civil service.
(B) For Young Professionals :
• It should be considered as a mark of achievement and leadership as well as providing immense practical and problem solving skill and should be recognised and valued by employers
• Linking corporate with special programs , CSR credits
• Society Work Groups in urban localities.
(C ) For Middle Level Professionals, Housewives and Others:
“Art of Volunteering “ on lines of “Art of Living”.
• Heath benefits and holistic benefits to personal development and stress reducing effects should be highlighted.
• Research shows that service matters in some unexpected ways. Volunteering is associated with better health outcomes. Much of the research focuses on the power of volunteering for seniors, but the experience has benefits across the age spectrum. In recent years, research has shown that volunteers are 30% less likely to report poor health. Studies have also shown that volunteers have a 44% lower mortality rate than those who do not volunteer.
• The above point should be focus of communication while inspiring this section of society.
Strategy 4: Villages! People’s War Group. So, Inspire like the Maoists ? ( Sadly but yes they have been successful )
How ?
• Unifying against common enemy (poverty)
• Giving incentives (link it to the local economy)
• Empowering (Give roles to all – Stagewise /Systemwise/Taskwise/Programwise Overseight Groups).
Questions to be asked
Do you empower people in villages enough ? .Are your programs linked to local economics.?
Eg: A reservoir project. Link to local peasants , masonry and benefit farmers and agriculture ( Linked to local economy). Guarantees labor wages ( Incentive)
Common enemy of draught & poverty . Change communication a bit bitter attack poverty , highlight the divide between India and Bharat ( Sometimes for good reasons).Explain cause as not failure of state but failure of villagers themselves in uniting against it .
Empowering ? Mostly policies of Central govt and NGOs’ fail here ( despite correct intent).Who guarentees the completion in programmed manner ?
Step 1: Stage wise implementation of such projects with stage wise budgets. Local people as commanders and incentives on each level of project completion to given set of people
Step 2: Stage 2 starts only after completion of stage 1.Now with different set of people from the community. Oversight to be stage wise and not central ( like elected panchayat or any such central body commissioned by NGO’s )
Step 3: If Democratic systems fails, the responsibility must share hands .Competency is never a question if such oversight groups are made considering them in first place.
To be noted : Reservoir projects failed miserably in UP-East. Due to apathy of Panchayat , people could see their failure but still weren’t empowered enough to change their destiny tied to handful of panchs whom sadly they themselves had chosen.
Strategy 5: Well Directed Aids. Working on supply chains of aids, reducing barriers.Assuming problems distribution , much research showed in west how assuming the Normally distributed “Homeless” problem led to loss of money while looking it as log-normal saved it and worked well . hence, Scientific rather than politically correct measures.
5.0 Conclusion
The most challenging task Civil Activities face is mobilizing public support, The public is apathetic to the surrounding environment. This is surely a cause of learned helpness. People believe that the situation is irreversible this can be fought with information and empowerment. Information provides the truth and the truth can set you free. Publish each and every detail of the inner workings of NGO’s and Civil organization . Let the public see the results and choose which organization to support. Empower the beneficiary. Of all the stakeholders in an NGO they are the most disempowered. Incentivize civil work by volunteers as practical advantages in their self development and careers. . All minor penalties should be converted to do community work as a part of their corrective action.
Smile can leverage on above strategies to not only to make the effort more broad based but also to pull more resources and get the multiplier effect.
Social change is a infact like a helegian process , it will start with challenging the thesis ( status-quo- learned helplessness, notion that nothing can change , un-giving society ) to an anti-thesis ( change can work, society can leverage on its own potential to challenge status-quo).It ends with synthesis where the thesis and antithesis reconcile. In this context the apathy of people will lessen to a large extent ( while not being eliminated) at the same time the civic service goals will strengthen.
( Paper Selected Round1: @IMI ,Delhi)
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