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[Photo: Balaji Sampath and AID Chennai volunteers] Dr. Balaji Sampath and AID Chennai
Association for India's Development (AID) is a non-profit, volunteer movement committed to promoting sustainable, equitable and just development, especially at India's grassroots. Dr. Balaji Sampath, while a graduate student at the University of Maryland, was instrumental in expanding AID's chapter base to many cities across the US. Upon completion of his Ph.D. in 1997, he returned to India as an AID Fellow (Jeevansaathi). Based in Chennai, Dr. Sampath works with the Tamil Nadu Science Forum, particularly in the areas of community health, education initiatives and women's savings groups. He, as part of AID Chennai, was instrumental in organizing the national-level workshop of the People's Health Assembly in Nov-Dec 2000, and is a key coordinator of the block-level developmental initiatives of the All India Peoples Science Network (The Hundred Block Plan). Dr. Sampath's AID-team has established Ganini Computer and Information Centres, which are low cost computer education and information centers. Each center serves about 30-60 villages. Another grassroots project they have been involved in is the Arrogya Iyakkam project that mainly addresses the blocks which are formed as part of the Hundred Block Plan (HBP). In each block (of about 30 villages) the health needs of about 30,000 families are addressed. Dr. Sampath's team has developed a mathematical model for malnutrition studies from data gathered as part of the Arrogya Iyyakam project. This project was adjudged one of the ten best projects in the world by UNICEF. Dr. Sampath's team has also developed the use of a digital data card for use in Self Help Groups and other development related areas. The impact of their work has been seen in several villages, where technology is actively used, and which are now able to generate their own funds and are able to sustain their own community development programmes. Recently, Dr. Sampath, in his capacity as the AID Tsunami Relief and Rehabilitation campaign leader, was elected as an Ashoka Fellow. As a person Dr. Balaji Sampath has been a true role model to a number of people. His commitment and honesty in trying to tackle important social issues are both inspirational as well as infectious. ===== A group of AID Boston volunteers attended the MIT Globus Indus Technovators award ceremony on January 24, 2006. Mona Mandal and Chaitanya Ullal received the award on behalf of Balaji Sampath and AID Chennai. They read out the following letter that Balaji sent them: Letter from Balaji Sampath Dear Friends First of all I must apologize for not being able to attend this awards ceremony and meet all of you. Secondly, I would like to thank the organizers and the selection committee for selecting AID CHENNAI for the award. We are honored and happy to accept the award. I would like to now take this opportunity to mention a few things about AID INDIA’s work and the main lessons we have learnt about grassroots development. AID INDIA started in Chennai 9 years ago. We were at that time a very small group of volunteers who were trying to initiate field programs and learn how to work in villages. Over the last few years, we have successfully managed to build up a good team fulltimers and volunteers. We are now implementing a community health program in 250 villages, a primary education program in 300 villages and a science education program in 200 villages. We are also implementing a library program in 1300 villages. Our livelihood, rural technology and agriculture intervention programs are relatively new and on a much smaller scale – in about 10 villages. When we started there were three major questions before us. 1. How do we develop programs that address basic problems in villages effectively? 2. How do we scale up these programs and reach out to a large section? 3. How do we sustain these programs and focus on long term sustainable change? Today, after almost nine years of working on a wide variety of ideas, we have some answers to these important questions. I would like to explain these in some detail. 1. Addressing basic problems: Instead of focusing on general overall problems, we decided to take up very specific problems in each field of work that were widely prevalent. For example, we identified and focused on the following problems: a. Reading problem: About 50% of the children in government schools in the 5th standard in Tamilnadu cannot read even basic Tamil. How is it possible that in school after school, after 5 years of attending classes, kids are not even able to read their mother-tongue? How can we teach them this skill in a short period of time? b. Malnutrition: More than half the children in our villages are malnourished. Why? c. Libraries: Most villages have government libraries – but these are very rarely used. In particular, children with poor reading skills and women never get to use these libraries. Can we think of low cost village libraries that are run by local volunteers but that are exciting and get children and women to read? d. Science Education: Most schools have no labs? Science is taught for years without kids even seeing or doing one experiment! How can we change this situation? Asking such specific questions, we began to work on finding answers. We tried out innovative solutions in a few villages, learnt from others, kept modifying these solutions, till they became more and more generally applicable. Finally we arrived at solutions that were replicable – that could work in several thousand villages. These solutions had five key characteristics: (i) They were all low cost solutions. (ii) They required ordinary people with 8th-10th standard education background to implement. (iii) They were flexible – people could modify them to suit their needs. (iv) They addressed a specific felt need. (v) They showed measurable results. We find that it is important to focus on small problems and work hard on them, till we find effective solutions to them. Very large structural changes are often built on such small but effective changes. 2. Scaling up: We realized quite early that we need to work with many groups – that we are not the only ones who want to address these problems. But to be taken seriously and to make sense, we need to also work directly on the field and demonstrate solutions. We therefore have a 3 pronged strategy. (i) Direct Work: We work in 4 blocks (about 50 villages/slums each) – where we work directly as AID-INDIA and demonstrate our solutions. This is our experimental ground. This is where we test our ideas. In all these 200 villages we work on all the programs. (ii) Working with NGOs: Using the experience we develop in our field areas, we train and help other NGOs implement the same programs in their areas. We provide them with ideas, materials, financial support and monthly visits and monitoring. For example, we are directly running 200 libraries. But with other NGOs the same library program is run in another 1100 villages! (iii) Resource Group: Apart from implementing programs, we also try to influence government and other institutions to take up the ideas we have developed. The materials we developed are used by many groups to improve the quality of their work. This aspect of our work is very critical as it helps main-stream a lot of the alternatives we develop. 2. Focus on Quality and Measurable Impact: To sustain these programs and to make a long term impact, two things are important: a. Main-stream impact: Programs that are run quietly in corner are difficult to sustain. Programs that quickly become part of a system and join the main-stream sustain much more easily. b. Quality: Programs where the quality is visible and impact measurable are easily sustained. Our focus is to ensure this quality in each of the programs we initiate. These 3 key steps is today an integral part of every activity we are involved in. There is also another important perspective which is a critical part of our outlook and this drives every action that we take. We start from the perspective that poverty, lack of education, ill-health and all of the associated problems that we address are a direct result of an unequal biased system. The poor are poor because they have been cheated and not provided equal opportunities. All our programs therefore focus on issues that look at ensuring equality and building up confidence in the poor. Sometimes constructive programs that help the poor organize better can make a difference, but at other times it becomes important to organize the poor to struggle and to stop them from losing the rights they already have. It is only a combination of struggle and constructive action that can ensure that problems of poverty, education and health can be effectively addressed. The last nine years of work has taught us that nine years is not enough! We realize that to make a long-lasting impact, we need to work over a much longer period – ensuring that the ideas we develop are internalized within the system. This recognition of our work only further strengthens our resolve to work harder and longer on these problems. Thank you. Balaji Sampath Secretary, AID-INDIA 24th January 2006 |
