Deep Joshi, the founder of PRADAN and winner of Magsaysay prize, tells SREELATHA MENON the government is not qualified to take up community development.
Your journey as a farmer's son in Uttarakhand hills to the man who got professionally, qualified people to work for farmers through PRADAN (Professional Assistance for Development Action) has been honoured. When did you decide to take up social work?
I was always interested in doing something which had a public purpose. I taught engineering at a regional engineering college in Allahabad for four years from 1968, when I was a topper. My classmates chose better paying jobs. There was a shortage of teachers then and even a BTech could be a teacher. I went to MIT in the USA to be a better teacher, to get a PhD. When I came back, I did not want to join any commercial activity and joined the Systems Research Institute. SRI's purpose was to introduce management systems into the public sector, among NGOs and co-operatives. One of the people who worked there was Narayanamurthy of Infosys. He left three months before I joined.
What was your first assignment?
It was the Jhamkhed project in 1977. It was a project started by a doctor couple — Mable and Raj Arole — who had taken a marital vow that they would work for the poor in villages. They subsequently went to John Hopkins and came back and worked in the villages in Maharashtra. I spent just four days there, but that made my path very clear. It was seeing Mable on the floor with the women, arguing with them, advising them — that concern and intimacy of a professionally-qualified person for the needy helped me to intuitively make this connection, that you need knowledge and interest in the poor who need your help if you want to hasten development in the villages.
I later worked with the Ford Foundation in Chandigarh in the Sikhomajri project, that's a little village near Pinjore. An ICAR person, P R Mistra, had built a dam here and had made farmers realise that if there was no water in the catchment, the dam will silt up. These were my two gurus, and both have died. Their work sowed the seeds for PRADAN. Now I was in a position to give money for this sort of work. I wanted to create more such people, rather than become one, for there was no replication of the likes of the Aroles or Bunker Roys or Aruna Roys, who were my contemporaries. Had I worked in a village, that would have been just me.
To what extent is microfinance a part of PRADAN's work?
We ourselves never did micro credit. We form self-help groups (SHGs) as a means of linking them to banks and giving them access to loans. We have formed 11,000 groups in seven states. We try to help them improve what they are already doing or start new things. It gives them confidence and acknowledges their capabilities. And, it also makes them capable of dealing with issues that affect their lives. That is the beauty of these SHGs.
How economically empowered are your SHGs and co-operatives?
Our 15 poultry co-operatives made Rs 60 crore last year. The producer companies we have formed for Tussar weavers have also been remunerative.
So how did you begin PRADAN?
Our focus was to bring good, educated people into villages and livelihoods. Vijay Mahajan, then just 28 years old, became the first CEO. He made a commitment of six months initially and the Ford Foundation made a grant. That was in 1992. Today we recruit 70 people annually.
Have you tried to make PRADAN self-sustaining?
No NGO can be self-sustaining. In PRADAN, we have no clients. We don't sell services. We depend on government programme funds of about Rs 60 crore a year for running our projects. We still manage to recruit 70 people a year.
What do you think of microfinance as a solution for poverty?
Even votaries of microfinance agree it is a service and not a solution. It is not a magic bullet. It can't by itself enhance livelihood. Of course, it can prevent distress sales. But for asset creation, MFIs (microfinance institutions) don't have products. Most have one-year products. What can you do in a year? If someone thinks that it is a way to remove poverty, then he is mistaken. No one likes poverty. It is like dirt on our body. So people are looking for simple solutions. Gandhiji and his movement, which was our first civil society movement, had solutions but they were ignored. Gandhiji said that the Congress party should be disbanded and all Congressmen should fan out into villages and bring about gram swaraj. But no one listened to him. Ultimately, the government took upon itself all work related to the public.
Do you think our BDOs should be qualified in social work? Or should the government do development work at all?
BDOs (block development officers) today are not qualified for the job they do. Anyone will tell you that the system is not working. Tell me: Have you seen a BDO sit on the floor with village women? The state's currency is power and the bottomline is coercion, whereas development requires motivation to extend oneself. The government is good for providing defence, resource transfer. But, for running development activities, there is a conceptual flaw in it. The sad part is no one seems to apply his mind to this matter.
You recently warned that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme would finally lead to a revolution if people are kept in denial for too long...
That is true. I find that the NREGP is widely known, but people don't know that they can demand work. Where groups are formed, one can see the change. So what I said was that NGOs should teach people to make demands. Today, people say in NREGP sites: Jab kam khulega tab kam milega... So people are still far away from the point when they know they can get work on demand. Once that point comes, nothing can stop them.
What do you think about the food security law being discussed now?
A lot of people who are in need of food security are farmers themselves. If you can help them produce more, you would then have done enough for food security. If a farmer who can produce 50 quintals is producing only 10 quintals, then something is wrong. But broadly on all matters, India's federalism needs to be revisited.
Today, simply because you are born in a poorly-governed state, you have no access to services. So I feel that removing poverty should be a central responsibility.
