India Syndicate 2.0

My friend Sanjay Yengul has a blog post on CRY. I find it amazing that an NGO has found a way to stay committed for so long in a country like ours where they cannot count on the government for support.

CRY’s approach is to be an enabler rather than an implementer. It funds and supports projects run by development organizations working within the communities where children need help. CRY takes a rights based approach to children’s welfare – the right to survival, the right to protection, the right to development and the right to participation – in short, the right to a childhood. It works on the realization that lasting change will come from addressing the root causes that keep children hungry, illiterate, exploited and abused.

As someone who has been inspired by and contributed to CRY before, I can vouch for the fact that CRY has one of the highest efficiencies among NGOs. Which means that more percentage of your financial contributions go directly to the development of the kids than with most other NGOs.
That said, I think the biggest challenge is to make most CRY programs self-sustainable. This has been the challenge that most governments in India face, and with due credit to them, they are addressing it.
Case in point is the Girijan Honey program started long back by the AP government. The idea was to protect the interests and rights of the forest tribals whose main vocation was collecting and selling honey. The program was devouring huge amounts of tax payer dough every year. While it was good to see that the tribals were getting some help, no one was under the misconception that the money could keep coming forever.
(For people who are not keeping their tabs on Indian politics, the AP exchequer is now broke…mostly because they are running non-sustainable programs like free power, cheap rice, health schemes etc).
But that is government. Politicians dont have an interest in making public welfare schemes self-sustainable. They are the gatekeepers to the funds being allocated to different schemes. They keep a portion of that funding as toll-tax. If the schemes were self-sustainable, the gatekeeper would be redundant.
But for organizations like CRY, it would make a lot more sense to go self-sustainable. It is not easy. You cannot/should not be making money off kids — there are enough people doing that already.
One way out is to provide kids with education they can use. Most of what is taught in Indian schools today only helps a kid in getting a seat to yet another educational institute - JEE exam preparation, GATE preparation, GRE preparation, CAT preparation. Yes, it is going to be hard on the kids. Working and learning together is very difficult and I know nothing about it since I never had to work before I finished school. But I believe it will bring some self respect to the kids.
Much is made about child labor in India. I agree, kids cannnot be forced to work. But consider this scenario: a family of 2 kids cannot afford to get a daily meal if they do not have enough working hands. So they send their kids to ur home to work. You, being a conscientous citizen, refuse to employ the kids. Will that ensure that the kid can go back to school ? Hardly, unfortunately.
If there are enough number of conscientous citizens refusing child labor, the parents will be forced to sell their kids to some henchmen. Remember, most parents love their kids and would like to see them develop into great human beings…even the poorest of parents love their kids. There is this stereotype of the poor father heted up on liquor who forces his kids to work..not always in touch with reality.
This is not to support child labor. Child labor is abhorring…but it is better than the kids being blinded and forced to beg.
The bottom line is: in a country like India, you will not find the funds to match the hands looking for those funds. Only 1-2% of the population pays taxes…that should tell us something. The only way out - whether you are an NGO or the government - is to make more hands earning than asking for money.
How ? Well that’s the challenge…but the mindset has to change from one of charity to one of economic problem solving. Charity is one way to show your compassion…not the only way, though.