HR Policy in Development Sector

Incentives, capacities, norms and professional identities of the organization are the reasons behind success or failing in branding. Brand name is also created mostly by network of ex-employees, partners and vendors. Hence, managing human capital and relationship becomes key in creating brand value. There comes the massive role of HR Manager in the mapping the environment to identify : Unique Employee Allegiance Proposition & Distinctive Competitive Advantage.

Why people switch organization? The answer to the question is same for each sector & development sector is no anomaly. Most Companies/NGOs have tendency to neither invest in the people nor provide mentors for the career guidance. This led to migration of the talented people who have quality of leadership. The mutual trust deficit leads to an organization which will be optimized to hire and keep people who merely want the next job. When organization sees people as true assets,they empower them with knowledge.

I always like the advice of Simon Sinek:When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.Massive HR problems are the dirty secret of a social sector. There is no talent crunch but mismanagement of human resource in Indian social sector. There is a good article on challenges of human resource in development sector in India.

Limitations of HR Manager in development sector:

1. Usually Indian NGOs are entirely one man show and thus giving massive issues of employee grievances to HR. The centralized decision making leaves HR quite toothless in the overall decision making process. In the board meetings of a national level NGO taking place in an AC conference hall, the focus is never on HR policies.

2. The budget and time constraint lead to HR going for the safe route for seeking the degree and relevant experience in job profile. The recruitment ends up with people who are merely good enough without probing fit of new employee into organization culture. Nobody in HR ever got fired for hiring MBA guy in India. When faced with the prospect of failure, HR seeks protection by hiding behind the brand name.

3. HR Manager in NGOs has literally no say in serious issues like gender ratio and the glass ceiling of the organization. They have maximum set targets for recruiting female front-line staff and lower management positions.

4. It's unreasonable to find someone truly talented to switch to your organization with brand name and low package only. Even with limited budget in the NGOs, an organization seldom improve quality by cutting costs, but can often cut costs by improving quality of the workforce.

5. Sometimes current employee don't understand the dynamics of a hiring, they don't understand why certain new employee have been recruited for so much money and why someone else has gone for such less. HR Manager has to unearth and address such insecurities with proper communication.

Recruitment Strategy:

1. Staffing skills and requirements have already altered rapidly in line with the growth of technology and social media but is expected to become more fluid in terms of cross-organisational collaboration with PPP mode, P2P ventures & even CSR activities. The old strategy of recruitment with lowest bidder will always be misleading in case of innovative projects.

2. A good recruiter scout first for competent person with potential and then for professionals. That comes with the experience and people management. Scratchy knowledge of the sector and human behaviour can lead to poor people choice in filtering process.

Whenever a good manager recruits, the single question to be looked:“Is this person likely to replace me one day?” And if the answer is yes, that’s the sort of person an organization want. Further, the top management has to do everything possible to make sure such careers flourish and vision of organization is fulfilled by new recruit.

3. There's a great danger when it's all about process - students getting into the MBA, then smoothly into the high profile job. Sometimes what's important is to get the late developer, or the guy who's just missed out or has taken unconventional path. The guys who've gone out the profession due to personal reasons and are desperate to get back in - they just want to devote the skills. They're there for all the right reasons. The brownie point for HR, they don't even talk about money sometimes.

Retention Techniques:The tough part is retention of employees. Best place to work organization always ensure this parameter to be one of pillars in building organization

1. A Harvard study suggests that the key to sustaining loyalty in employees is making sure they get to do the things that are most important to them outside of work. The regular one to one communication with all, flexibility in hours, non monetary rewards, appreciation from top management matters most for an employee.

2. It's unreasonable to expect that you'll develop amazing people when you don't give them room to change, grow and fail. It takes a very self assured person to compliment talent of others. An insecure top management scavenges on the failure of new recruits and create negative environment in the organization.

3. Leadership that grooms only frugal, non-confrontational and smooth-tongue employee will always have succession problems. HR job is to ensure diversity in the management and as well as workforce. Talent management is not about social standing in organization but inspiring employees to on own strength and performance. Sharp analysis and straight talk promotes reform in the all type of organization. Hence, a culture of praise closes the feedback loop for HR only and best of talent slips away to other firm discreetly.

It's a tricky work being HR in the development sector as criticizing the organisation is very easy but correcting the course without any support from top is much difficult. HR ends up either looking after employees or an organization in long term. The latter is the majority phenomena. It’s a nice idea to change a system from inside. It just happens to be untrue with time. An established structure will change one before one can change it. Accomplishing all three objectives – quality, quantity, and cost efficiency – simultaneously is difficult, and the likelihood of compromise is great.

In the figment of public imagination, development sector is staffed entirely by self-sacrificing and below market standard worker bees. I would term worker bees as "Development Mujahideen" who have given any decent wages and working in remote location for universal betterment. It is still assumed that social work is a sector for people who could not do anything else in life. And that the sole aim of good students is to become rich for personal gains. There is a lot of suppressed frustration in the professional of this sector. I had once urged my friend,Manu Bansal to ventilate the frustration through words and please read the personal anguish in blog post with a pint of beer.

Demonetization & Rural economy

In the mid 1960s, India faced a severe food shortage (mainly in Bihar) and nearly escaped from a major famine. Prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri started lots of policy initiatives to curb food shortages and such initiatives in turn paved the way of Green Revolution. When India was throttled again economically in 1990, and that's what changed the country forever. The opinion of researcher Suyash Rai at the National Institute for Public Finance and Policy and Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania on black economy is required to understand the depth of the situation.

The announcement of demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes came on 8th November 2016. Problem in rural economy had appeared as Kharif harvest is sold in hard cash, an investment is required for Rabi season and marriages in community will happen in this time of year. Farmers, landless labourers, domestic servants, pensioners, small traders, all these and many other groups have taken a terrible hit  First, there is huge liquidity crunch in the informal and rural sector. The effects is felt by both supply and demand side.

The MFI industry is a cash intensive with its large network base of 3.2 crore clients in India. Most of the borrowers take loans in cash and they repay loans in cash. MFI operations will be most affected due to this decision as there are for lot of women with loans between Rs 10000 to Rs 50000. The disbursements will be delayed and collections drops can lead to situation of operational paralysis in the rural sector. Even then fight for market share could lead to weakening of credit appraisal standards for achieving required sales target. Such conditions for the failure of the industry to defer payments temporarily will be milked by political class. MFI sector has already shown relative slowness towards going ‘cashless’. This can be attributed to fact that India is among the most cash-intensive economies in the world with a cash-to-GDP ratio of 12%, almost four times as much as other markets such as Brazil (3.93%), Mexico (5.3%) and South Africa (3.73%) .

There is huge requirements of seeds, fertiliser and pesticides for Rabi season. The farmer will be forced to buy on credit or take loan from informal credit sources at exorbitant interest rates. Even with decent monsoon rains, the farmers is willing to invest heavily this year as they were hit by drought in 2014 and 2015. Government has allowed withdrawal limit to Rs 25000 for the farmers but this will not solve problem as rural banks are already overloaded with responsibilities of exchange. Many people simply do not have active bank accounts and even ATMs are working under capacity.  A lot of housewives, artisans, and workers may have cash lying with them at home. This isn't part of hoarded illegal money but a traditional way of saving money for women without seeking permission from husband or other family members. This little amount, concealed from everyone, usually grows as time passes and is used in the time of needs. This revelation isn't "small price to pay" and can't be termed as collateral damage in fight against black money. This kind of policy debate ignoring women leads to is a less empathetic society .

The chaos spread in this time will be used by black money hoarders in rural areas too. The illegal exchange of currency notes with lesser monetary value notes will be the first move of brokers. Brokers will use KYC of common man for siphoning of money into Jan Dhan Accounts of illiterate populace for small time. The main challenge will be of cash logistics for banks in far and remote places. Rural economy will be forced to run on deferred payments and barter system for few months. Rice, wheat and other staple crops will be used as exchange currency. The slowdown of economy will wipe out a large number of small entrepreneurs from the market. There is an urgent need to tackle middleman-transporter nexus in this scenario that has always dominated rural marketplace. The issue with farm in India is not that farm income is exempt from tax but farmers don't even have to report it. The small traders in villages have agriculture land holdings and always can show the illicit wealth as farm income.

The short term effect will be slowdown of economy and hence a reverse exodus of labour will happen in upcoming months. NREGA expenditure must be increased in this financial years as there is lot of rural populace who have no asset base and mainly depend on wage labour as their primary source of income. MNREGS, ICDS and even NRHM are only source of livelihood for many women in an already crippled rural economy, with little avenues for non-agrarian work is fast depleting with the effect of demonetization.

The long term effects of this policy decision will surely lead to both innovation and protest. Most labour intensive businesses (such as tea-gardens, factories, transporters, cab services, construction and civil engineering works and so on) pay wages in cash. There will be impact on the mode of payment in near future. There will be promotion of financial transactions using digital, paper-less modes like mobile money, mobile wallets, debit cards, ATMs, and ePOS machines. MFI sector is focused on credit and maybe some insurance with , while the m-banking world is focused on transfers and payments with sophisticated back end systems. There will be convergence between them to avoid such situation again. MFI, customer and banks will ultimately move towards unison as a part of the financial inclusion drive of the government.

Reform is often waylaid by hidden priorities and even slow when implemented fairly. There is always unwanted effects due to complex nature in rolling out any new scheme. Structural reform in 90's have proven this mantra and the long term actions taken in cleansing financial sector by current government is no exception. There was always an urgent need to have radical changes keeping ten years time ahead. A strategy can't be sought with incremental thinking by the state. RuPay, Payment banks, Demonetization, Aadhar Cards & Jan Dhan Yojna has brought up winds of disruption and innovation through technology, regulations and government action, will fundamentally alter the banking sector. The future will belong to those who show speed, imagination and the boldness to embrace change towards cashless economy and targeting BOP clientele.

Still, I will argue that a rationally argued cause-and-effect connection within the limits of the evidence is required from experts, as it is essential to investigate facts while debunking fantasy element spread in social media. India has to understand and address positive changes, failures and externalities of demonetization drive in rural economy.

Default Management in CBFO

Microfinance means different things to different people. There is difference between working of regular MFI companies and Community-Based Financial Organizations (CBFO). Community based microfinance model, owned and governed by community members has always served cost-effectively and provided financial services to the end users. Too much scaling without proper assessment could drive CBFO to financial indiscipline at the SHG level, lead to over-borrowing and potential default. While working with few clients will be unsustainable for the CBFO itself.

Loans can benefit the poor and their community only if properly managed. In most of the default, the pressure on giving loans without proper risk assessment mounts on both supply and demand side. A debt becomes bad when it’s not paid for three consecutive months. Here are few pointers that are learnt with the experience -

How to avoid delinquency ?

• Peer monitoring and group pressure is the main influential factor in loan recovery performance of the SHGs. Even the family of loan applicant must be in the loop when loan is sanctioned.

• Due diligence must be carried out in loan appraisal to ensure the repayment capacity of the customer and assessing the customer's capacity to repay and avoid over-indebtedness. Educating clients on ill effects of over-borrowing will go a long way in reducing arrears and defaults.

• Recovery and repayments depend on the mutual trust between CBFO and its members. Agent dormancy, or inability to deliver service due to vacancy, has a corrosive effect on trust, which is the bedrock for any system of financial services.

• The clarity on installments, penalty & expected vs actual must be with agent as well as member for bringing clarity and smooth information flow.

• It is the responsibility of the staff to clear overdue and facilitate the grievances readdressal with the community. There must be refresher training for the staff and office bearers on risk management, sustainability, accountability and ownership.

• Knowledge dissemination of Panchasutra : Regular Meeting, Regular Saving, Inter Loaning, Timely Repayment, & Up to date Books of Accounts.

• Reminders or calls up the customer for recovery is common practice. Weekly SMS reminders before scheduled repayment date with detail of loan amount will serve as a nudge in the behavioral change of members.

• Documenting and communicating answers of questions like -What was the main single factor that motivated you to repay? Are they consistent or not? If not, why not?

Do’s of Overdue Recovery

• Try to motivate borrowers to repay and root cause analysis of the default must be filed. The default happens either due to fraud or real time emergency. The distinction between them makes easy for recovery down the road.

• Only one person must be Point of Contact (POC) for default/ delinquent group. Recovery for default must be done in the team of office bearers and members of SHG or cluster with the staff.

• There must be a notice served to members having defaulted loan before visit. Regular follow-ups with proper communication messages are the best way of ensuring recovery.

• The emotional factor must be utilized in recovery process by giving successful examples of other members in such position. There must be pressure exerted from two sides. One person must explain her social angle of the default while other person must focus on self interest and future options.

• The defaulted member must be invited in the meetings with respect. Staff must facilitate that positive environment is maintained in the meetings. There must be carefulness on the gender and caste issue.

• Recovery should normally be made only at a mutually agreed designated place. Field staff shall be allowed to make recovery at the place of residence or work of the borrower only if borrower fails to appear at the designated place on 2 or more successive occasions.

Don’t of Overdue Recovery

• Team especially consisting all men shouldn't go for recovery from women member and no abusive language should be used. The contact time is between 7am to 7pm excluding inappropriate occasions such as death. RBI norm must be followed with rigor in the recover process.

• Police complain is the last option to be used by the team. There should be strictly no mention of claiming Land/ Gold for recovery of default amount.

• Field staff shouldn't give any commitment of either rescheduling or restructuring of the loan without any consent to the superiors. To rework household budget and make provisions to accommodate changes in the repayment amount must be made in written agreement.

• A very high level of indebtedness and tough recovery techniques can led to many villagers seeking government intervention that will be political risk for the operations.

What people think of Microfinance?

Microfinance is financial services for poor and low-income communities, people who have been excluded from the mainstream financial system. Yet, there are the diverse opinions people have about Microfinance. I have encountered few in last 5-6 years and presenting them in summary format.

1. The MBA: "Truly amazing business model & poverty reduction tool."

2. The arrogant: “Unsustainable and too risky! Does it actually work?”

3. The over-informed: “Yes, I know about it, you give money to poor. Social enterprise!”

4. The ill-informed: “Thugs lending money to poor at high interest rates and brutal recovery techniques.”

5. The devout fan: "This is the future, only we need investment and scaling and may be P2P."

Microfinance is not panacea from all troubles, this also means that not any poor person can obtain the loan. I can vouch with my experience that only micro loans can't solve poverty. There is enough evidence to support my claim : Microloans Don’t Solve Poverty But research might reveal what will. I always go for the advice of Wayne Dyre before deciding for myself:"The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about."

Distinct Honour to Chaitanya

Governor CH Vidyasagar Rao has appointed social researcher Dr Sudha Kothari and Founder of Dalit Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) Milind Kamble as expert members on the Rest of Maharashtra Development Board on 6th June 2016. Sudha Kothari serves as the Managing Trustee of Chaitanya, a developmental organization established by her in 1993. Chaitanya is one of the pioneers of community based microfinance institutions in Maharashtra state and promotes 42 SHG federation with an outreach of 1 Lakh women members across 18 districts of Maharashtra. Dr. Kothari also serves as a Member of Board of Trustees at FWWB India.

One of the great delights of my job is the daily encounter with Dr. Kothari. She is a great mentor and her whole life mirrors commitment to poor women. It’s an honor to work with people whose contributions make us proud and inspiring. 

Good Governance & Public Policy

What is Public Policy ? Public policy focuses on the processes by which various types of policies and regulations that affect members of the public are created and enforced. Public Policy deals with public goods delivery – political economy, taxation, law and order, good social and physical infrastructure, including better education and health facilities – and facilitate provision of private goods (cheaper power, flexible labour laws and other subsidies). The guiding principles for better public policy include building people’s ownership and participation in the governance and decisions affecting their lives. Regulation, Redistribution and Equity came to the forefront of policymaking.

Resources be it human, natural or financial are limited in a country and a government must utilize them in the most productive manner can achieve the best possible growth. That is the essence of good governance. The first and foremost requirement of good governance is broadly distributed political rights among citizens and the government accountability and and transparency in public administration. An ideal public service institutions will be decentralized, professional and autonomous management structures.

The theoretical framework however doesn't work smoothly in the real world. Governments in many developing & underdeveloped countries are corrupt and never work in favor of the people. They work for the interests of specific groups. It would be naive to think that governments work for the public all the time. Economics works alongside and interacts with social and political forces framing the policy. Politically motivated decisions, the undisclosed profiteering, the conflicts of interest, the vested interests, & the bad experiments with good intentions can lead to the flawed policy making process. So how the end objective is achieved ?

Policy makers must be open-minded and open-armed to combat such conflicting interests arising due to potentially corrupt motivation. They must have sound knowledge of the local context of a community – its history, politics, social structure, and culture, along with its economics. More the diverse the stakeholders in policy making, the probe in the issue will examine ground realities, re-validate assumptions on which our policies rest, and evaluating  new initiatives. The real impact of policy decisions are measured by three factors:

* Number of beneficiaries covered under the policy
* Number of beneficiaries who experience a positive change with the implementation
* Participation of the people and innovation springing from the outcomes.

Public opinion is varied and contested space, continually shaped and reshaped over time. Popular opinion in India generally overlook corrupt vested interests or don't want to go for long term reform. Hence, Indian state has always insulated public policy from open debate. The bureaucracy in India has never let the control of policy shifts to an autonomous institutions and public has suffered the ill results of lack of knowledge among civil servants. Bureaucracy seldom promotes creativity and, under the cover of neutrality, preserves the advantages of the powerful by dominating the weak. In the government systems, professionals are always crowded out by the imprisoning logic of bureaucracy. As described aptly by Prof Ajay Shah: In the West, leaders choose the direction of public policy. Government is like a car, which goes where the leader directs. But in India, the car is broken, and just turning the steering wheel is ineffective. To do public policy in India, the skill required is that of an engineer and not the driver. It is about opening the hood, understanding what is wrong with the institution, and fixing it.

Each policy must face several test: Are the policies realistic? How will they be implemented? What results will they produce in the long run? Were there more reasonable, less risky, cost effective, user friendly, & more inclusive policy measures that would have yielded as much benefit as the rolled out one ? There is no ultimate policy measure but always a solutions-oriented approach means more innovative outreach and trade-offs in a wiser way. I will be putting more on the non academic and self learned diagnosis of public policy in coming days. Watch this space and hear buzz words like committees, accountability, check and balances, transparency. Have I lost you yet? I will.

Agricultural Commodities - Pulses

Market at the micro-level has to serve three main stakeholders with different expectations. Farmers wants good price and constant demand, distributor wants fat margin and consumer wants low prices and quality product. In the market scenario at macro-level production of the pulses, demand-supply conditions within India, volatility in global commodity prices, variation in exchange rate, policy of the government, and a surge in import can lead to determination of final price of the any commodity. 

This article series aims to provide an introductory overview on the agricultural commodities in India. The first article of this series will carry the discussion by offering an analysis of the pulses in India. India is the world’s largest pulse producing, consuming and importing country. Bengal Gram (Desi Chick Pea / Desi Chana), Pigeon Peas (Arhar / Toor / Red Gram), Green Beans (Moong Beans), Chick Peas (Kabuli Chana), Black Matpe (Urad / Mah / Black Gram), Red Kidney Beans (Rajma), Black Eyed Peas (Lobiya), Lentils (Masoor), White Peas (Matar) are major pulses grown and consumed in India. During 1950-51 to 2013-14, area under pulses increased by 31% from 19.09 million hectares [mha] to 25.23 [mha] and productivity per hectare increased by 46% from 441 kg to 764 kg with significantly disappointing 0.64% CAGR of productivity. Even the area under cultivation for pulses has seen marginal increment, there is shift in the quality of land used for pulses production.

Green revolution has pushed pulses cultivation in tough terrains resulting in declining productivity. As pointed out by Santa Kumar Committee Report: "GoI needs to revisit its MSP policy. Currently, MSPs are announced for 23 commodities, but effectively price support operates primarily in wheat and rice and that too in selected states. This creates highly skewed incentive structures in favour of wheat and rice. While country is short of pulses and oilseeds (edible oils), their prices often go below MSP without any effective price support. Further, trade policy works independently of MSP policy, and many a times, imports of pulses come at prices much below their MSP. This hampers diversification." Hence, the government needs to create a crop-neutral incentive structure for farmers, which is at present skewed in favour of rice, wheat and sugarcane.

Pulses have low carbon emission and water needs which make them ideally suited in India’s farming system. Rainfall in India is highly unreliable both in time and geography, leading to fluctuation in the production. The major driver of food inflation was the hike in prices of pulses, which was caused by the crop loss due to untimely rains. India’s pulses production fell from 19.25 million tonnes in 2013-14 to 17.3 million tonnes in 2014-15, while imports rose from 3.18 million tonnes in 2013-14 to 4.58 million tonnes in 2014-15. With the sky rocketing prices of the pulses, the government has taken haste decision to import 7,000 tonnes of Tur (5,000 tonnes earlier, and 2,000 tonnes now) to tame prices. In a country where the consumption of tur daal hovers between 3.3 to four million tonnes, aiming to control rising prices by importing 7,000 tonnes tur shows both the policy failure in pulse price management and strong cartel of importers artificially jacking up the prices. Ineffective policy measures appear to be knee-jerk reactions more than calibrated responses of policymakers.

No pulses are currently traded in future in international markets and only Chana is traded in future in domestic markets. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which also regulates the commodities futures market, may consider banning forward trading in chana (gram) as part of the government’s measures to bring down prices of pulses. By suspending futures and forwards markets, the government can simply shot the messenger. This is only evidence of a rather sloppy conceptual framework of policymakers. Merely scapegoating traders as  “hoarders” and “speculators” is not going to be effective in today’s times. Also, traders hold the strings to the political purse, and a crackdown against hoarding would be damaging for ruling political party. Forwards and futures markets are supposed to give signals for effective price discovery and efficient price risk management. It is therefore necessary to develop suitable futures contracts for major pulse varieties separately, as also for all pulses together in the form of index futures.

Pulses are now termed as crops for poor, largely cultivated in marginal lands prone to poor irrigation supplies. Low pulse yield in India compared to other counties is attributed to poor spread of improved varieties and technologies, abrupt climatic changes, vulnerability to pests and diseases, and generally declining growth rate of total factor productivity. Lack of effective market news system and existence of different grades and qualities have also contributed to these imperfections in market. Appropriate reporting with quality differences and graded produce could go a long way to reduce the high price differentials, spatial as well as temporal.

Readers can also read a good article in IPGA examining the price issue of pulses. Jokes comparing  butter-chicken  to pulses are already in the market, and the trend doesn't look good for next year. It will be much shame for current government promoting 'Make in India' campaign while importing pulses, oil-seeds etc from foreign nations. India government needs to get the act together if they are truly committed to the food security of our fellow citizens.

Adieu Udaipur !

Today is my last day at Access Development Services (ADS). I started eighteen months ago managing Farmer Producer Companies (FPOs) at South Rajasthan. I am very proud of my team, and I wish them well. They have a lot of challenging work ahead. But for me, it’s time to move on.  I’m not going to sugarcoat the reasons for my exit. This might be my last chance to switch sector since I am not getting any younger. I have taken a role of Operations Manager in Chaitanya at Pune that works in the micro-finance sector. I recognize the task before me is neither small nor easy. Microfinance means different work-style and leadership.

The profile of a candidate in the development sector belongs to someone who easily adapts to new environments, enjoys travel and field work, likes to tinker with things, and prefers independence and improvisation to super specific tasks. Strong people management skills is a bonus learning, and much required. One can't always be the smartest person in the room, but one can always be the most prepared person in the room.

I have learned most about networking, human resource management and leadership abilities in this job. I had mostly taken decision in an inclusive way as a part of management. That had lowered efficiency in some cases but have helped in creating an atmosphere of trust with community and co workers. There will always be few relationship more important than hierarchy in the organization. These relationship can be with the field worker or CEO of the organization. They’re worth investing in and maintaining for a long term.

It is vital for me to know my own strength and weakness. I have progressed but have seriously under-performed in terms of its potential. I had missed few professional goals in the journey. This can be attributed to the lethargy and unguided career management. I have a minor trait as bit of mental frustration pile up gradually under job pressure. By intrinsic nature, I struggle to be realistic about my own ability, and importantly, my limitations.

I live by certain ideologies that help me know when I am doing wrong as a rural manager. I take pride in the work. I do and feel equally responsible for the success and failure of how the country and society function. ‘Development’ and ‘benefit’ are not values-free concepts, but rather have different interpretations of each individual & organization. I believe today in dynamic world that development is both the promise of inclusion and equal opportunity on the one hand, and the rhetoric of competition and relative advancement on the other. 

How a little of the word, I know, even at the age of thirty. I saw the cruel fate of millions of their daily struggle for life and dignity. Through them, I learned a lesson in humility and endurance. I ended up being their students and learnt about farming, relations, migration for work and household issues. The places where one discovers his own hidden individuality are never on the map. They are just out there, may be in a remote village or just in the middle of a cosmopolitan city. Udaipur helped me to refine and redefine my capabilities. Real life scenario is always further off the projections when individuals assess their own career plans, partly because their chances, desire to succeed and hard work create a new future.

I want to bid farewell to my ADS team. There is no way I could have achieved all that I have without their help. I have a sense of achievement and happiness over the span of months. I’m thankful for the opportunity that I had at ADS. I learned more than I thought I would. It was challenging to work for donors such as Rabobank Foundation, Small Farmers' Agriculture-Business Consortium (SFAC), World Vision India & Department of Agriculture, Rajasthan Government. I was lucky to have interaction with livelihood experts like Sankar Datta and Vipin Sharma with various representatives from institutions such as World Bank - India, Fair Trade India, Hivos International, Sir Ratan Tata Trust & Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), IDBI Bank, Ananya Finance, Friends of Women's World Banking (FWWB), CARE Bangladesh, MART & Rajasthan Grameen Aajeevika Vikas Parishad (RGAVP). Here’s to new challenges and new opportunities.  I am still on the way to chase profits with purpose as a rural manager and will quote Gandhi's words while taking decisions on career: "Whatever you do will become insignificant, but it is very important to do it." 

Thought of the Day:

The Dark World of NGOs

Do you know that only about 10 per cent of the over 22 lakh NGOs file their annual income and expenditure statements with the authorities ? As per given Source- A total of Rs 13,051 crore foreign contribution was received by 17,616 NGOs in the country in 2013-14, Rs 11,527 crore by 20,497 NGOs in 2012-2013 and Rs 11,558 crore by 22,747 NGOs in 2011-2012. Also quoting another Source- The main change is that all NGOs will have to make public each foreign contribution received by them within a week of the receipt, on their official website or a website prescribed by the government.

Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA)is a regulatory tool that enables monitoring and control of foreign funding. It will be better to know about pros and cons of this tool before going in this debate. PMO has initiated exercise to tighten monitoring over NGOs in the country. Intelligence Bureau has given inputs to "improve oversight and increase transparency" in the working of the voluntary sector in India. The crux of the IB report lies that foreign-aided NGOs are actively stalling development project.The reputation of the NGOs is on thin ice due to corruption but one must look overall problem in context of current government policies.

The paranoia of foreign hands begins with former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was extremely worried of NGOs that she assumed to be puppeteered by foreign agencies. The current saga began with the offloading of Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai and blocking fund of Ford Foundation. While Greenpeace is instrumental in raising voice over Kudankulam project, Ford Foundation came on scrutiny due to funding of human rights activist Teesta Setalvad’s NGO fighting for the rights of Gujarat riot-victim. The success story of Ford’s grant making programme in India are Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Yogendra Yadav, Kiran Bedi and Anna Hazare. In an exceptional situation, both Modi and Left see these foundations as the capitalist interests of the west for different reasons. PRIA has removed an article advocating Ford Foundation as model for philanthropic initiatives in India while maintaining the web link at twitter.

Before demonizing either government or NGO sector, let us look into this matter with open mind. There is surely shift in ole of government aid paradigm. Government of India is funding projects only for service delivery project to NGOs. NGO-isation of India's HIV/AIDS program has widened the field of non profit organizations participation in government programmes. The success of this apparatus is connected the episodic failures in service delivery and addressing HIV-related stigma comprehensively in the present due to lack of government extension staff. Also, the rights-based approach being adopted by state governments in their various Acts has no or little merit in practical realities. There are no funds available to monitor implementation of the rights based laws. The additional nail in the coffin for protesters is lack of fund for human rights, democracy and law enforcement. No organizations in India will go on the wrong side of state by giving funds to protesters (problem groups). This has led to the dependency on funds from foreign donors.

In 2014, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, Maina Kiai highlighted three general principles to protect civil space. The ability to seek, receive and spend money is one of them. Current government can't criminalize dissent but they are cleverly having a crackdown on foreign-funded dissent. Current laws fail to define anti national & political activities leading to mishandling of the protesters. And a thumb rule about power in India is that whenever interpretation of regulation is left completely up to the imagination of the state without any establishment of independent institution, the net result is nearly always discretionary and prohibitive.The roots of democracy lie not in the government but in social relations and freedom of speech. The means of protest in the state shows us the real power of citizens and voluntary sector. One must remember words of Vinoba Bhave - "What we should aim at is the creation of people power, which is opposed to the power of violence and is different from the coercive power of state."

But the news isn't good for voluntary sector itself.It will not be an understatement that funding to voluntary sector is largely decided by bribes and political affluence. NGOs are used as siphons to route black money by corrupt entities and individuals! The voluntary sector is a den of corruption and corrupt NGOs needs to be completely weeded out.They must make full and public disclosure of their funding and expenditure. They must also be made answerable under the RTI Act. The era of accountability and transparency has to began in the voluntary sector.

The job of NGOs, whistle-blowers and the media is to keep the entire government apparatus humble and they have a universal responsibility for the protection of innocents even that means wrath of state. Corruption in any form must be curbed if we wish to become a developed society' . Robert Klitgaard, a world famous authority on corruption, famously declared that corruption is equal to monopoly plus discretion minus accountability (C=M+D-A ). Both government officials and NGOs have looted funds in the name of poor, disabled, women and minorities. It is important to handle matters of the state and voluntary sector with transparency and accountability. There are tough questions for us citizens to answer now. Do NGOs really know the interest of donors while protesting before government ? Can government go ahead with any “development project” as a rhetorical national interest without consulting all stakeholders? If any citizen disagree with govt and take to the streets, should the IB keep a tab on the concerned citizen? The debate is much recommended, even if it will raise more questions than it can probably answer.

*Please also read articles of Jay Mazoomdaar in Firstpost, Harsh Mander in Scroll & Samanth Subramanian in The Guardian dissecting the dark world of NGOs.

Livelihoods Asia Summit 2015

Livelihoods Asia Summit 2015 was being held on December 10 and 11 in New Delhi, India. The Summit sessions were on topics like skill development, impacts of climate change on livelihoods, inclusive value chains, policy innovations, and private sector partnerships, among the approaches that offer a pathway out of poverty. The summit has more than a hundred delegates working as sector specialists, practitioners, and advocates in the livelihood sector. Panel sessions and other live events are great — especially the Q&A &, which ranges from absurd to tricky.

There was a focus on policies, programs, private players, and potential in the poor during the sessions. There was emphasis by panelists to think of poverty as a dynamic and multidimensional phenomenon. There were numerous policy-level talks on SHG and FPO, but the dialogues on the next generation of institutions were lacking at the summit. The summit also ignored rights-based approaches to livelihood development, while a strong body of literature exists showing the correlation between empowerment and economic productivity.

There are two schools of thought emerging in the usage of the poverty alleviation fund. One views the establishment of the community institution through participation of the civil society organizations, while others pitch for direct benefit transfers to the beneficiaries. A government official from the Rural Development Ministry pointed to the success of universal primary education and connectivity to rural areas through PMGSY. The welcome part was an eye-opening session on the impact of climate change on the livelihood of the ultra-poor. Experts suggested that people need risk transfers and insurance protection for livelihood recovery post-disaster.

I enjoyed much of the time at the summit.  As much as I got out of the conference, I know there is still more to learn and more to share. Yet, I have always wondered about these summits where every leader talks about what needs to be done! But they are the ones who should be doing it! Underlying message of the summit - No one organization can eradicate hunger and reduce poverty alone; only in partnerships with a broad range of stakeholders can all of us achieve the goals.

Inclusive Finance India Summit 2015

ACCESS has hosted the Inclusive Finance India Summit from December 8th to 9th, 2015 at in New Delhi, India. The summit has gained recognition and the Inclusive Finance India Report has been quoted extensively in the Malegam Committee, and working report for the Microfinance Bill. The Summit has facilitated discourse on issues like-policy environment, data analytics in financial inclusion, mobile wallets, BC model, customer protection, impact of JAM, and innovations in the sector. I attended the summit as the delegate of ACCESS team.

The Summit began with release of the Sector report 2015 was followed by several sessions on microfinance and financial inclusion in the country. The buzz of the sessions were around Mudra bank, Payment banks, cash less economy and Small Finance Banks. Eight out of 10 Small Finance Banks which have been given in-principle nod by RBI are microfinance institution (MFIs).  Sector experts are hopeful that Small Finance Banks  fill the "missing middle" in reaching the bottom of the pyramid.

India is an interesting scenario as there is rapid updates in telecom infrastructure, IT services and progressive government spending on digital infrastructure. I was really impressed from a particular session  on use of data in digital financial services.  The main issues were  hurdles faced in data sharing and cashless transactions.  Big Data, Small Credit is a good report quoted by a speaker on the impact of the digital revolution on the emerging markets.  I was impressed with a start up company - Lenddo. They use users online social connections to build their creditworthiness and access local financial services. 

Also, one act in a stupid way while confronting a hero. I was glad to have seat next to Prof Malcolm Harper and was literally at the loss of the words required for having a meaningful dialogue. I am already looking forward to next year’s conference with the hope I can attend again. After coming home from the summit  put on by ACCESS, I am feeling renewed, and energized. 

Mid Day Meal (MDM) Program

Theda Skocpol, Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard, notes that spending on education and family health care is especially likely to generate social and economic returns. Midday Meal (MDM) program is a school meal programme of the government of India designed to improve the nutritional status of school-age children nationwide. India's MDM program feeds 120 million children and employs 2 million women. It's an initiative that changes lives and provides human-capital investment in millions of children. 

The poorest of the poor are defined as those who can eat only when they get work and who lack shelter, proper clothing, social respect, and means to send their children to school. They have no land, live on daily wages, and need to send school-age children to work in times of crisis. They send children to government schools as this is the only way to ensure one time meal to their wards and the best chance for children to break the cycle of poverty. MDM scheme has many potential benefits: attracting children from disadvantaged sections (especially girls, Dalits and Adivasis) to school, improving regularity, nutritional benefits, socialisation benefits and income support to women .

An impact study has shown that the food stamps alternative or the direct income support is not feasible, for it may lead to adverse consumption choices by the targeted households. This would happen, particularly in countries like India, where educational and awareness levels of the targeted households are low.

Learn more in this animation designed by Rhitu Chatterjee and Mathilde Dratwa.

Livelihoods

What is Livelihood ? Nobody understands this word outside the cocoon of the development sector. The problem with the word livelihoods is that it has overtones of subsistence. It hints that poor people should only have enough just to live – not to prosper. As Kate Magro says : “Why is it that Westerners have careers, jobs, employment opportunities and everyone else has a livelihood?”

Livelihood is a convergence of multiple disciplines of profession leading to the cash flow in the household. Mostly the poor are engaged in a “diversified portfolio of subsistence activities” (DPSA) for earning their livelihoods. Hence, Understanding smallholders' financial needs will be the key step to understand livelihood scenario. A new survey of 1,800 banks conducted by the Initiative for Smallholder Finance reveals that the total amount of debt financing supplied by local banks to smallholder farmers in the developing world is approximately $9 billion.

The first step towards designing livelihood plan for the beneficiary will be to seek information on all of the income sources, various consumption and investments, interplay among cash flows, barter arrangements, credit sources and the financial tools in use throughout the year. Migration is a major livelihood strategy for the rural poor that must be included in the project design. That will give us ideas to better understand their needs, preferences, aspirations and behaviors. This information set must be shared with Donors, Government, Financial Institution and NGOs. The future programs designed to strengthen and develop rural livelihoods must grasp the whole range of vulnerabilities and risks faced by  an entrepreneur or farmer/ artisan.

To understand what NGOs are doing, it is important to understand what they are not doing. There have been various attempts to improve income of farmers & artisans in order to making the value chains more inclusive. While addressing the critical gaps in the respective value chains, the donors put more emphasis on the capacity building than market linkages.  The utter disdain for market forces by such initiatives and short planning without critically looking sustainability factor has led to massive failure till now. Sustainability parameter evaluates the likelihood of continuation of interventions initiated due the project by the community, scaling of pilot activities, leadership development in the community, institutional and financial arrangement in post project scenario. Hence, a livelihood intervention requires a critical first step in the process : Development of a livelihood project, as proof of concept and live workable model on the ground.

Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector has huge potential for growth in the semi urban and rural India. Throughout they also account for a disproportionately large share of new jobs in OECD countries. The rural entrepreneurs operating and managing the solar lighting enterprises at village level constitute the backbone of TERI’s Lighting a Billion Lives Campaign. There are successful cases  make us arrive at a conclusion that with a very little financial help and skill training, the villagers are able to be enterprising. The rural entrepreneur has been enrolled into skill development programs promoted by the government for livelihood enhancement. Now, there must be urgent focus on provision of soft loans and vulnerability reduction funds with  financial tools designed as per the cash flow of the occupation.

Any livelihood programs must build up the physical, financial and social assets of the rural poor using local resources. Empowering communities to take control of economic development is slow, patient work and even end as failure —and people funding or supporting development work need to take into account when designing livelihood programmes.

Tribal Affairs: In the name of 'development'

How tribes are often destroyed in the name of 'development'. A new film, ‘There You Go!’, has been launched by Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, which takes a satirical look at how tribes are often destroyed in the name of ‘development’.

Indigenous peoples make up around 370 million of the world’s population – some 5 per cent – they constitute around one-third of the world’s 900 million extremely poor rural people. According to a UN report: In Australia, an indigenous child can expect to die 20 years earlier than his non-native compatriot. The life expectancy gap is also 20 years in Nepal, while in Guatemala it is 13 years and in New Zealand it is 11.

Traditional tribal habitats, particularly in mainland India, are rich in mineral and other resources and this has attracted large-scale power, mining, and infrastructure projects. Like any other indigenous communities all over the world, they face issues of brutal violence by police, denial of land rights, dispossession of land and marginalization. Rehabilitation and resettlement efforts have been pathetic, The apathy and slow progress of various departments in taking up the community claims is often resented by tribal communities.Even if they are increasingly recognized for their unique relationship with their environment, they face racism and discrimination that sees them as inferior and uncivilized. They are in process of assimilation by the forces of mainstream with their benefits usurped by non-tribal and government (Revenue, Police, Tribal Development and Forest Departments). There are also instances of the Tribal Sub Plan funds being diverted for projects of little direct benefit to tribal (Detail report). Even where the allocation is sufficient, the money is neither disbursed on time nor programmes implemented optimally due to administrative inefficiencies and corruption.

We conceptualizes development as something done to individuals and communities, rather than with or by them. This paternalism of government/ NGO / Religious leaders is ethically flawed; the fact that it often fails to achieve development outcomes only adds to the case against it. Development is a slow process. As once Russian scientist once said: ‘‘Ice forms instantly, but the process of forming the ice is slow and invisible." There must be feeling of being partners in progress rather than development being thrust from above. We have to ask tough questions - Is goal of development to help developing countries catch up to and copy developed countries ? What is development for a tribal boy ? Is development economic only ? Unless we answer such questions, there isn't much hope in the fast changing world for the tribal.

Career Advice

1. Upton Sinclair -: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it. ”

2. Interest on debts grow without rain. :- Yiddish Proverb

3. Ability is nothing without opportunity.  :– Unknown

4. Forget the risk and take the fall, if it’s what you want, then it’s worth the fall. :– Unknown

5. Negative choices are our worst choices. :- Unknown

Insight into Development Sector

A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Once, a gentleman gave me incredible insight into the development sector where NGOs follow a simple rule --- "Piss Less, Spread More". This appeared cynical to some extent and sounds profane at first. But people had longer careers talking about development than doing it. Shows which is easier! This conversation caused me to look at life from a whole new perspective in the development sector. NGOs are currently less concerned with the quality of work and strive for a better communication strategy for social media, donors & other players. The brand image of NGOs is based on goodwill and less on the actual impact of their work. The unfortunate irony is that all too often, rhetoric and symbolism replace logic and action in the hallowed portals of the NGO conferences.

Let us never forget that not all NGOs have necessarily been formed for altruistic reasons!

Udaan : Flight out of Poverty

There is neither Perfect Market Competition nor Perfect Community Cooperation. The middle path of community owned enterprise competing in the market has always both social capital and market presence. The rise of the creative economy encourages self-interest over collective action in the society, but all is not lost. There is a Value-proposition for setting FPO (Farmer Producer Organization). Udaipur Agro Producer Company Limited, (UAPCL) is one such producer company focused on strengthening the livelihoods of the community. Here is the glimpse through this video in which yours truly has small part -

JPAL Executive Education : Evaluating Social Programs

Do you know about Confirmation Bias ? People more likely to believe information that fits their pre-existing beliefs, but they’re also more likely to go looking for such information. Hence, we are stuck with wrong design of the development programs dooming millions of investment. So, we do not let evidence from the ground guide the policy? Unfortunately, it is hard to get clear-cut evidence of causality. Using evidence to guide aid and social work is crucial to ensuring the efficient use of limited resources. For years, policymakers have debated different approaches to helping the poor and now they have published research paper after a nine-year, six-country study, offers resounding evidence for a strategy that works. Proponents of randomized program evaluation argued more field experiments were needed to learn what worked.

There are also critiques like economist Angus Deaton who suspects that an average bureaucrat might take the results in controlled environment too serious. Any aid to poor really ought to be decided by democratic discussion  between stakeholders while RCTs are often done on the poor without any partnership is hardly an encouraging sign.

This led my interest in the executive education program offered by Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). I was among 31 executives selected for the course held on July 2015. This five-day program on evaluating social programs provided a thorough understanding of randomized evaluations and pragmatic step-by-step training for conducting one’s own evaluation. RCT measures impact of the program by comparing a treatment group to a control group, where the people who get the treatment are drawn randomly by lottery. There was emphasis on building theory of change for seeking an impact of the program.

I enjoyed great atmosphere of learning in those five days. Thanks to Sharanya Chandran, Dechen Zem, Diwaker Basnet, Chandra Shekhar Gowda, Rajeev Kumar and Rajesh Jain. And I learn a valuable lesson that ideas should be funded based on evidence that they work — not hope.

How to build a theory of change for an impact evaluation

SECC data is out.

As per Prof Cornel West, Democracy always raises the fundamental question: What is the role of the most disadvantaged in the public interest? The catch in the valid question lies in the definition of the 'Disadvantage Class/Caste'. The definition of "Who are they" varies among politicians, academics, and policymakers. Any major program in any sector can't be effective without a robust information system. The road to social justice for all should be based on solid data for understanding ground realities.

SECC data is out. This census takes caste into account for the first time in any such exercise since 1931. But the government is hiding OBC numbers. The previous government led by the Congress had also decided to conduct a caste-based census, but not to make the data public. The reasons for withholding this data can only be political.  Data on economic indicators, with special enumeration of SCs and STs, is done by the regular census as well. SECC was commissioned because many parties wanted similar numbers for the OBCs to pitch for political mileage. However, it is always tough to digest that SECC was done to mitigate the absence of large-scale, credible, and empirical data for public policy. But, it is a matter of time before the numbers are made public.

There was once a huge hue and cry over caste census as being labeled as divisive by upper caste-dominated groups. Prof. Kancha Ilaiah had explained this in his article: Who’s afraid of caste census? --- "Caste culture is all around us. In the dalit-bahujan discourse, the upper castes are being shown as constituting less than 15 per cent. This could be totally wrong. Even within the lower castes there are several false claims about numbers. Every caste claims that it is numerically the strongest and keeps asking for its “rightful” share. How to tell them that their claims are wrong? When caste has become such an important category of day-to-day reckoning it is important to have proper data at hand to tell communities that they constitute this much and cannot ask for more than their share. It is true that we cannot distribute everything based on caste. But caste census is the right basis for statistics such as literacy rate and issues like the proportion of representation. Once we cite the Census data there cannot be any authentic opposition to that evidence."

There is unquestionable value in a general policy of reservation as merit can't be the only criteria for granting subsidies and quotas. Social Justice and economic barriers also need to be fulfilled for deciding such national/state-level policies. Despite deep affiliation with caste groups, the public is ready and eager to advance toward a more transparent and accountable society. And, making SECC data publicly available would improve transparency in the political debates if not direct action leading to better governance.

The bigger question isn't the availability of the data but the lack of willpower to implement the policy. There is all the required data available for STs in the census yet there is a siphoning of funds allocated to SC/STs. (Systemic denial and diversion of budgetary allocations). Many departments have failed miserably in allocating funds and even spending that minor fund for the TSP as per the proportion of the tribal population of the state. The manipulation made by the bureaucracy and political leaders in making the decision to divert the TSP fund showed a huge contrast between public policy and data-based evidence. Also, there is a deafening silence on Gender Budgeting (GB) in the corridors of power. So we have a country where no one pays heed to independent minds seeking evidence-based policy in the social sector. In such a political system, one has to learn to manipulate rather than simply put the case.

A pure functioning meritocracy would produce a society with growing inequality, but that inequality would come along with a correlated increase in social mobility. Is this really happening across caste and religion? We can only guess policy as there is not yet sufficient data for planning on caste-based issues. SECC data would even regenerate healthy debate between two groups proposing - either 'caste-blind &class-based' or 'caste & class based' type of affirmative action. The best way to improve the quality of the debate is by providing individuals with the data to make informed choices in a democratic country. SECC data is crucial for making sound evidence-based plans, it helps us understand what justice is so that appropriate policy can be made for the Disadvantaged class/caste. 

Migration Series -3

Let me move ahead in the last part of Migrant Series. (1 and 2) .Whenever someone comes with an idea on research on the issue of migration and informal sector, there is complete lack of valid data on the nature and terms of employment, particularly in the informal sector. This is directly linked with the state’s unwillingness or inability to use resources for counting the large number of informal sector workers including child workers, bonded labour, migrant workers, home-based workers, domestic workers, and manual scavengers.

A person migrate to a prosperous region due to low employment opportunities at home, low agricultural productivity, deeply entrenched feudalism, and negative industrial growth of the region. Due to irregular cash flow nature of agriculture, a household has no other option but to seek credit at exorbitant interest rates from the local money lender during an emergency situation. The household requires huge money for repayment that isn't much available in returns from the agriculture. That is one of the reasons of the migration in any part of the India. This migration is facilitated by contractors and relatives. They are even willing to accept any distress wages that are offered as long as they have access to employment. In the dire need, they neglect the problems of not having an identity cards, lack of awareness about potential employers or favourable working conditions. The share of agricultural households among rural households varied from 27 per cent in Kerala to 78 per cent in Rajasthan. And, an accurate mapping of agricultural household and migrants can show the true picture of migration in India.

According to a recent census report, three out of five people in Indian cities live in slums; the increasing migration will make that four out of five within the decade. Covering over 4,000 towns, the report reveals a figure of 65 million living in unauthorised squalor. "Unrecognised" slums have no access to safe drinking water, electricity and sanitation. Chakarpur village in Gurgaon is a hub of migrants from Bangladesh and West bengal. Such migrants always have a sense of vulnerability and social isolation that is exacerbated by their ignorance, illiteracy and the alien environment. Urban middle class populations who generally hold negative views on migrants. Local Rajasthani and Punjabi is considered as “indigenous and authentic” whereas the migrant from Bihar is a sinister criminal in New Delhi. Low skilled workers are utilized in construction sector, domestic servants, chauffeurs and gardeners while women and child are working as maids, rag pickers, and scavengers with low and irregular income. These slum residents provide cheap labour as their average wages are just 40-70% of the local labour. There is a CARE report on such pathetic living conditions.

Mosse et al (2005) highlight the fact that most formal channels for protection of seasonal migrant workers such as the Minimum Wages Act (1948), the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (sic) Act (1979) and the Construction Workers Act (1996) among many others have demonstrated a bias towards formal sector workers and hence failed to deliver. As a result most informal sector migrant workers rely on contractors and agents to cope with socio-economic risks. Most of these insurance products sold by agents (usually friends and acquaintances of the migrant) have limited knowledge of the product themselves. The reliability of such agents is always in doubt and rarely case is heard about claim settlements through employer. Exhaustive working hours, poor nutrition and occupational hazards (injuries occurring at the workplace) always push migrants back to the source. Early return is a complex and multi-layered issue that often destabilizes the social, economic and psychological well-being of a migrant.

Bonded labour is rampant in brick kilns, stone quarries, beedi manufacturing, carpet weaving and construction, and child bonded labour in the silk industry. Bondage has been rampant across the state, but the government denies the fact. While thousands of bonded labourers have over the years been released, only very few of them were issued release certificate by the authorities concerned. The bigger question is “whether the state is willing to abolish the bonded labour system?” Since no release certificates are issued to those released and no legal case filed against those who keep bonded labourers, hence there is no persecution.

In this last part of the series, we will give focus on Distress Migration and Human Trafficking. It must be kept in mind that trafficking is different from migration. There are important fundamental differences between migration and trafficking. Trafficking of women and children is one of the gravest organized crimes and violations of human rights done either through deception, coercion or debt bondage situation. Human trafficking is also up in India for the similar reasons -- a lack of economic opportunities, a corrupt state, and the rise of terrifying social pathologies. There were hundreds of thousands of migrants, nearly all male, who did not have wives or girlfriends with them, and having an expendable income. This made a much more fertile environment for prostitution, and hence human trafficking in India. There are various pull factors for destination are Jobs, promise of marriage and a better life, demand for young girls and finally access to sex trade.

Immigration has become symbolic of the disruption of communities, the undermining of identities and the fraying of the family values. It is an outright violation of the right to mobility when government stop people from emigrating for better life. But it is a quite impossible task and also not desirable to stop people from migrating voluntarily. However, there are strong voices that objects to migration. Immigration is clearly one of the most fiercely debated and toxic issues of today. Even in policy circles, there is a disconnected emphasis on remittances alone and less about social factors. In the short term migration may result in the loss of local financial and human capital, but it can also be beneficial and contribute to the long-term development of rural areas. Remittances generate significant indirect benefits to the community at large.

Do migrants really have a choice between two such different worlds, between aspiration and deprivation, power and powerlessness? There are no words for me to write on anger, violence and frustration of the migrant worker. The topic of gender, trafficking and migration has been around for a while, but substantive work on this topic that go beyond the anecdotal is yet hard to find. Those who are interested in basic study can look upto : An overview of migration in India, its impacts and key issue.

Migration Series - 2

Let us start from Migration Series - 1. Once there was a popular myth: in the Government and Development Sector: Migration of 'poor' rural population is bad idea. Even when higher caste population was migrating towards cities for education, the government was launching various schemes on poverty reduction in the villages to prevent people from moving to the urban areas. So, why is the Migration Issue ? Migration – when it is safe, legal, and voluntary – is the oldest poverty-reduction and human-development strategy [Migration, Development and Poverty Reduction in Asia] . As per Wiggins & Keats [Stepping out of agriculture] - "Migration takes various forms, distinguished by:  Destination – international versus domestic, rural to urban, rural to rural and urban to urban; and, Length of absence – permanent moves of a year or more, and seasonal moves – to which might even be added daily commuting."

Many moves are not permanent, but vary from seasonal and circular. The reasons for out-migration can vary as a result of debt at home combined with high unemployment level and poor wages for jobs in the village. The availability of temporary jobs in the nearest vicinity with boom in urban development leads a huge circular migration pattern daily. Temporary migration is a routine livelihood strategy for the poor in India  rather than coping strategy to “keep the wolves at bay".

Migration Pattern in India

There is migration from landlocked BIMARU state towards places having either industrial hubs or agricultural prosperity.The tussle between migrants and ‘people of the soil’ has given rise to political right parties in Maharashtra.

Migration Pattern International 

Taking the estimates available, it seems that just over 3% of the world’s population are international migrants (UN Population Division, 2013), while domestic migrants are at least 12% of world population (Bell and Charles-Edwards, 2013).

Remittance Market

Remittances provide the most tangible link between migration and development, a relationship that has only increased in importance since the economic slump since 2008. Let us compare the Official remittance flows compared to other large monetary flows in 1990–2016 projection for India. The graph is constructed with World Development Indicators and World Bank Development Prospects Group. The remittances from the migrated Indians have played a major role in the development of India from 1990's to present day. Personal remittances are estimated towards value of above 70 Billion Dollars leading to major boost in local consumption. Even when FDI and portfolio equity has dipped during recession era of 2008, the personal remittance has grown in a major way in India.

Internal remittances are part and parcel of livelihoods for many poor families in the developing world with migrant members working in big cities. Internal migrants within far outnumber international migrants but the internal remittances, however, are often small.  Rural areas often receive the lions’ share of remittances. As rural-urban wage differentials grow, the returns from migration increase. India has the second largest domestic remittance market in the world (Tumbe 2011). It is also estimated that of the total domestic remittance flows in India only 30% are routed through formal channels. This is in stark contrast with China where 75% of the remittances are formally routed (ibid).

Are internal remittances contributing to poverty reduction? Remittances from urban employment are mainly used for such purposes as immediate consumption, repayment of loans, health care expenses, education and meeting other social obligations. Investments by migrant households in housing, land and consumer durable are common, and migrant income is also used to finance working capital requirements in agriculture as well as small businesses. . Those who are interested can  read World Bank report on The Remittance Market in India(PDF).

Remittances need to flow directly into the hands of the people who need it most. There is a lot of policy gap for this goal that must be addressed on urgent basis by the government.  Policy initiatives by the government and banking institutions have achieved an important result - Most remittances is flowing  through formal channels. India need to revamp their apparatus for issuing passports and regulate agencies that recruit unskilled workers. And internal migrants also need a lot of entitlements and services from the government and better mechanism for fund transfer through financial institutions. The social impact on the lives of migrants will be discussed in the last post of the migration series.

Capacity building of capacity builders

The heading of the article doesn't seems to confuse reader who are working in development sector. Its a fancy word on the training of field staff. The major component of any development project is institutional and human capacity development in the community. Training the larger development community to more effectively support community-driven efforts requires a field staff with local networking, trust and suitable skills. There are six factors to be considered while managing field staff in the development project.

1. Recruitment of LRPs - In this phase, mostly NGOs go either for references or prefer an experienced candidate. The most preferable candidate is not the most smart one from the community. Honesty, non political nature, perception in public and hard work are the traits to be seen in the recruitment phase. With some expectations the leadership is concentrated in the hands of elderly people. The style of functioning of these elderly people exhibits authoritarianism and frustrates younger generation. 25-45 is the most suitable age for the field worker as the community have a certain level of trust and sees maturity in these candidates. Conflict of Interest must be considered before hiring of any worker. The experience of person who has worked recently in fraudulent chit fund will make NGO dubious for the community. Job profile, terms of the payment, and attendance must be clarified in the interview.

2. Knowledge Transfer - Knowledge is a powerful tool. Knowledge transfer requires a detail knowledge on the name of the Project, the Implementing agency, the Funding agency, Area of operation, deliverable of the project, total projected outreach, role of field staff, organization hierarchy and a brief project note. The major hurdles in information dissemination is the language of the medium. This is a huge problem at all India level as the necessary level of English is not known to the field staff. All the training modules and IEC material must be in local language.

Trainers used custom charts, posters, pamphlets and a video for the training session. Short movie clips is the best medium for the transfer of the knowledge. Digital Green has done significant works in this area. Training session in leadership, team-building and core objectives of project require a detail article in itself. There are ways like role play, puzzle solving, group discussion & storytelling depending on the skills of the trainer for knowledge transfer in the training session. Through exposure visits also, field staff gains a lot of insights on hurdles in implementing project.

3. Data Gathering - Honest data collection is one of the rigorous task performed by field staff. Its easy to  criticize but difficult to gather data in rural India.  Hence, the continuous monitoring of processes of change, and scientific evaluation to track the progress of the project depends on the shoulders of the field staff . While going in for a survey it is always a good idea to get to take input  of the local staff as they are the one needing most clarity. Perhaps one of the most common mistakes is not to understand that the rate of collection of data in the rural area differ from an urban setting. The whole process is a lot slower as the villages are really really spread out, migration issue and the low connectivity. The scope of data which has been actually and more importantly properly collected in our villages very low.

4. Gender Issues - ‘Feminisation of development’ is a fancy phrase referring to the recent trend of seeing women as both beneficiaries and agents of change in development. There must be combination of male and female staff to provide capacity building support to the community. Effective two-way communication engage in dialogue and debate on issues ensures proper outreach.

5. Transparency & Ethics - Transparency International's website and their definition of corruption is "Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain" and it "depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority". A disgruntled field staff can go back and sow seeds of distrust in the community. Hence, transparency in decision making with community involvement is a better option rather than handling a post crisis situation. One of the instruments for achieving trust of the community is more transparency. Right to know rules & tell rules are pillars of ethical high ground for any person and institution. 

6. Incentive & Rewards - Employee motivation is a continual challenge in traditional ‘command and control' structure of NGOs. ; Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs applies for small NGOs. All field workers aspire for recognition of work. They look for responsibility when they can either see advancement in salary or non monetary reward for good work.

7. Monitoring -  The reporting officer must  visit their operational sites, observed their activities, witness their implemented project, participate in their committee meetings and interact with numerous ordinary villagers – both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries as well as village leaders. This community-level information will immensely effective in analyzing the implications of these organizations at the grassroots level. Not only this will give the hold of grassroots by these interactions, but also minimize chances of bogus reporting by the field staff.

Working in non profit sector doesn't give us excuse of inefficient manner. Nonprofits often have limited resources to invest in staff training on effective project management. They are also in fear of personnel who may shift to another big NGO after taking training from it. The flip side of inadequate trained staffl due to lack of funds will take toll on the community as well institution. Last of all, never pretend to know great fundas of development in front of field staff. You will have a bad time.