Social Sector: For a sector which prides itself in
understanding the real issues of real or ‘unprivileged’ aspects of India, they seem
to completely lack an understanding of the other side of ‘developing’ India.
They are quick to judge when it comes to anything or anyone related to
corporate India, mostly on the basis of their ideology or the lack thereof
(anti-secular, anti-reservation, sexist, communal, capitalist etc). Somewhere I
get the feeling that they do not want to understand either. As per the sector’s
ideology, they are morally superior because they are trying to resolve issues
affecting the society while the other side is not. Ooops! Did I say superior?
No, here everything is about equality. Right?
“Corporate India / Middle class India is apathetic. They do
not want to know the social issues or be a part.” Well, I have not seen any
real effort at engaging or dialouging with the corporate sector or the middle
class by NGOs to make them feel included. The importance of Corporate India or
the middle class is being felt only when international aid has dried up and there
is a desperate need to raise funds from within the country.
“Capitalism or anything related is evil, it perpetrates discrimination
and promotes inequality.” However, this has not stopped anybody from shopping at
Marks and Spencer or trying out new gadgets like the tablet or Samsung phones.
In case people haven’t realised, these all are products of Capitalism itself! And
what many have failed to observe is that freeing up the market in the 90s gave a
lot of people, especially from tier II and III cities, many opportunities to step
out and fulfill their aspirations. Call it the McDonalds effect but social and
economic changes especially for women across the country have been much faster due
to it than any social movements.
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| (source: www.examiner.com) |
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| (source: www.prideinmadness.wordpress.com) |
Corporate Sector: Theirs is a happy bubble of high aspirations
and even higher material needs. To them, the answer to most issues, even social,
is ‘development’ or economic growth as this year’s Lok Sabha Election has
shown. They firmly believe that the ‘Trickle Down Effect’ will reach the
remotest corners of our country eventually and root out all problems along with
it. All the hard earned monies that we give as tax are anyway going to our
poorer cousins in the villages as ‘free’ or subsidized sops and schemes. Why do
they need more? A mere mention of inequality or issues faced by communities at
the village level or our poorer counterparts in the cities and one is labeled as
Marxist, jholachaap, anti-development etc.
NGOs are looked upon suspiciously as all of the above, cogs in
the wheel of policy changes, corrupt with either money going in their own
pockets or wasting it on unnecessary foreign trips and high salaries. A friend
once said when I asked him about philanthropy: “I would rather financially
support people I know who need it and know for sure that my money was utilized
well rather than donate to an NGO and not know where it went.”
Ours is a complicated country/society with multiple layers to
each problem. Here’s a simple example - Computer literacy is the way to go no
doubt and by donating a computer to a school in a village, you feel you are
contributing to educating these children. But if the village school does not
have expertise to handle a computer or maintain it or if there is hardly any
electricity in the village for it to work, will your contribution make any
sense? If girls do not get to study, how does it really help in the longer run?
Add to this aspects of caste and you will find that in the end, your computer
is lying unused in its corner.
Sitting at extreme ends of different ideologies and style of
working and looking suspiciously at the other will help nobody. Just as there
are corrupt companies, there are corrupt NGOs. Just as there are good
companies, there are NGOs and activists doing great work. Just as Capitalism
has some good points, Socialism also has some valid aspects. Without effort and
dialogue, the existing chasm in thinking and work will never be bridged.
And the village folks will not be the sole sufferers but all
of us because like it or not, we and our issues at different levels are all connected.
