Fringe to the fore

Azadi Records, which is our cover story this month, has enriched the Indian music scene by identifying little known musicians, singers and other performers like DJs and connecting them to audiences. It has helped some great talent find wider notice.

Is it important? We think it is because the music and personal histories of the performers add up to give us a picture of India we are perhaps not exploring enough or may be missing out on altogether. The songs, lyrics and singing styles reflect the angst, beliefs and hopes of a new generation. Azadi Records therefore plays the very useful role of taking us beyond Mumbai, Delhi and the other big cities to help us discover an India we tend to ignore. 

Our opening interview this month is with Poonam Muttreja of the Population Foundation of India. Poonam is one of the veterans of the social sector and she has been featured before in our pages. But this time the occasion is special because it is 50 years of the Population Foundation of India. 

Stories of successful community action come from Punjab and Karnataka. In Ludhiana, residents have intervened to ensure that public money is properly spent on improving the Buddha Nullah, which is a tributary of the Sutlej, but has been reduced to a drain. The government had awarded the job to a contractor. The residents have insisted that scientists and engineers of a certain standing be consulted.

In the Dakshin Kannada district, a zilla parishad member has rallied college students to build a series of temporary check dams at low cost. The idea is to catch the rain before it flows off and thereby raise groundwater levels.

The medical profession tends to get more public-spirited these days. Check out our interview with Dr Prabhu Prasad of Manipal Hospitals who has set up a voluntary organization to promote palliative care in pulmonology. It is a great effort in a country choking on pollution.



This is the third issue of Civil Society brought out in lockdown conditions. In such circumstances, it is not particularly easy but we have tried to bring together for this issue interesting stories from all over the country. 

What we now know about migrant workers should tell us a lot about ourselves. If they hadn’t burst on to the scene, as they have in recent weeks because of the coronavirus, it is certain that their exploitation would continue without remorse amid claims of economic growth and declining poverty.

The picture now is very different. It is clear and for all to see that the majority of the workforce in India actually has no rights or benefits to speak of. They turn up in cities to escape rural distress, but their hopes and aspirations aren’t realized here. They merely end up as cheap labour. Laws exist, but are inadequate and not enforced. 

With this cover story we take a comprehensive look at the issues relating to migrant workers. We have three honest voices in Chinmay Tumbe, Shyam Sundar and Rajiv Khandelwal. Speaking with them has helped us understand the legal, economic and social aspects better.

Is distance learning through the internet and television adding up to anything or is it just driving everyone crazy? We spoke to students, parents and teachers and the story we have is that it is not going to be easy. Such are the disparities, both social and economic, that not everyone can cope with distance learning. It seems there is no viable substitute for school, as we know it.

Many NGOs have been working tirelessly through these difficult days. They have done much better than political parties. The government should be appreciative of their efforts. Some of them work in remote locations under adverse circumstances. The Action Northeast Trust or Ant, led by Dr Sunil Kaul, is an example with its mental health camps in rural Assam. 

The coronavirus pandemic is a great story. As journalists we have our work cut out for us. But how do you hold your nerve and produce a financially fragile magazine when oil futures dip below zero, people die in tens of thousands and the world around you seems to be generally collapsing?

We stayed calm and kept going and we are very proud to be able to bring you the May issue of Civil Society right on time. The April issue was brought out ahead of time to beat the virus, but then came the lockdown and distribution of the print version was hit. So we put out a PDF version — as we will also do with the May issue. 

The pandemic is a good reason for India to reassess its healthcare system. Our cover story therefore is on shining examples of what the country’s healthcare system should aspire to be so that it is inclusive and affordable.

Even as the government’s hospitals fail to deliver and the private sector ones get too commercial to serve the people who need them the most, many non-profit rural hospitals provide the kind of healthcare services that are not just affordable and accessible but in terms of quality put urban facilities to shame. 
 
The virus comes to us with the message that we have to reform ourselves and rethink our priorities. The tens of thousands of migrant workers who filled TV screens and in a sense walked right into our comfortable homes should always remind us of what remains to be done for fellow Indians. Growth can’t just be a GDP number.

Migration from rural to urban should be better understood. To take us deeper into the migration question we spoke to Chinmay Tumbe who teaches at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. Tumbe’s advice for the short term is to provide migrant workers with social security with the ‘one ration card, one nation’ idea being implemented.

Public health services need a big push. A larger spend is required, but it is not merely a matter of funding. What should be pursued are innovative strategies for combining an array of resources available in India. 

Traditional systems of medicine provide that opportunity when they are combined with conventional allopathic healthcare and used to increase the reach of the system. Ayurveda, Unani, yoga and an array of folk therapies have the potential to enrich treatment regimes. The question is how to formalize this integration to everyone’s benefit. 

When it comes to metabolic disorders associated with lifestyle there is little doubt any longer that traditional systems provide lasting results. Whether it is for the rich or the poor, traditional systems are what is working.

Darshan Shankar, who has written this month’s cover piece on request, has been researching Ayurveda and other local health traditions for several decades. He highlights what could be done quickly to implement the National Health Policy’s suggestions on integration.

The elections in Delhi have ended in a heroic victory for the Aam Aadmi Party. Heroic because it is a young party, poorly funded and it was with great courage that it took on the might of the entire BJP. The AAP victory also comes at a time when there is growing disenchantment over communal politics. Irrespective of what is in our Constitution, we are at heart a secular country. People of different faiths intrinsically know to happily live together. 

We also bring to you in this issue an interview with Vidhu Vinod Chopra on how and why he made his new film Shikara on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits. In addition, we have voices from the voluntary sector on the new and restrictive curbs being imposed on NGOs. Architect Sanjay Prakash weighs in on why being vegetarian is good for conserving water.

Just when India should be rapidly dealing with its many problems and coasting into a robust future, as it indeed has the capacity to do, the country seems to be in the grip of a sense of foreboding. The economy slipping into a coma is one big reason for everyone to be worried. But it goes beyond that.

If we listen carefully to the young we will find that they are concerned about the shrinking space for personal freedoms and expression. A great many of the young don’t take to caste and religious divides. Young women making their way on to campuses want equality and access. 

When it comes to education, the young are clear that they want it to be affordable and inclusive. At the same time there is distaste for the heavy hand of the State. The government the young want should be a facilitator, not a gruff arbiter.

The upsurge on campuses is unprecedented. But it has been in the making for a long time. CAA and NRC are inflexion points at which all the other concerns have come tumbling out. It is to be noted that there has been nationwide revulsion over the incidents at JNU and Jamia. There is a genuine fear that such incidents will be repeated in other institutions to crush dissent when the young dare to speak up.

Our interview with Nandita Haksar is an attempt to explore the issues pertaining to identity, religion and culture. These shouldn’t be decided in the streets. Governments have a responsibility in a country as diverse as ours to set the stage for harmonious solutions. 

We also bring you a green map for Bengaluru so that the city knows what it once had and what it is rapidly losing. This is the third green map, the first two being on Delhi and Pune.

And from Goa we have a report on the concerns over a corridor for transporting coal to Karnataka. Will this project lead to pollution and ecological damage as many Goans are beginning to fear?


Widespread opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and plans for a proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) is reason enough not to implement them. The government would do well to withdraw the CAA and drop the idea of an NRC. 
Neither can work without popular support and to thrust them on states would not work and would weaken the very spirit of federalism on which the country’s governance is based.
As we go to press with this issue of the magazine, there have been five days of protests of the kind that we haven’t witnessed for some years since the India Against Corruption movement. The people coming out range from ordinary folk to film stars — all of whom are clearly distressed over the possibility of India losing its secular identity. The CAA is an example of how laws don’t necessarily reflect what people want even when passed by majorities in both houses of parliament. The tendency to clamp down on students is counterproductive. The brutal assault on Jamia Millia Islamia’s students in their library and toilets has shocked the nation. 
Apar Gupta of the Internet Freedom Foundation tells us what is wrong with the draft Data Protection Bill that has been presented by the government. How our personal data is accessed and used should be a matter of concern to us all. Gupta is a lawyer and an activist in the digital space. 
Cities interest this magazine hugely. In Kolkata we learn how its traffic problem was sorted out and in Chandigarh the mayor tells us about his determination to get rid of a garbage hill. 
Our Business section features a company making biodegradable plates and cutlery, an enormously useful business given the urban problem of dealing with waste.  New-age businesses make our lives better and we take a keen interest in them wherever we find them. So it is in Goa we have come across a young company which has turned walks into an enterprise thereby offering visitors and locals alike new insights into Goa's heritage and way of life.

You might ask why we chose to go to Dharamshala to cover a film festival as our cover story. It is our experience at this magazine that the interesting things we discover invariably happen to be far from the big cities. The film festival at Dharamshala is a small and intrepid effort which deserves a place on our cultural map. In fact this year it might just not have been held for want of sponsorships. Spirited local organisations and individuals didn’t let it die. 
   There is much concern these days about the lack of jobs in the Indian economy and it is true that there isn’t enough employment for a growing number of young people. An economic slowdown brings long-term problems. If an example of successful action is needed one should turn to Youth4Jobs, an organisation Meera Shenoy founded seven years ago. Her team puts 10 disabled young people into jobs every day. Over seven years 18,500 have found employment. How has this been made possible? 
   Meera has got many things right. The training given to disabled young people is intense and practical; for meaningful transformations. Someone learning to use computers and acquiring life skills begins to immediately feel empowered. Finally, skills are customised to suit jobs available. Employment programmes work when driven by demand. Meera has shown that it won’t do to duck challenges. She has chosen to work with disabled young people in villages. It doesn’t get tougher than that. 
   A national report on India’s justice system is out and we interviewed Shireen Vakil and Valay Singh, who anchored the process in the Tata Trusts. Several organisations came together for the first time to make the report possible. We now have baseline information on the access to justice in all the states of the country. It is a sorry picture that emerges, which was already evident, but will the report lead to improvements and how soon, is the question.


Environmental solutions have become more precise and impactful. Water harvesting is an example, for a long time boring a hole and putting water back into the ground was regarded as enough. Not any more, as our cover story shows. How rainwater is collected and used depends on many factors like rainfall available, topography and usage patterns.
The success at Rainbow Drive in Bengaluru could serve as inspiration for other housing estates. But what works in Karnataka may not work in Haryana where rainfall is not plentiful and soil conditions are different. In fact, solutions can across housing colonies in a city.
Similarly, ponds and tanks raise groundwater levels in their own way and create microclimates conducive to vegetation that might not have existed otherwise. Expertise is emerging in water harvesting and leading to small companies being formed to offer professional services.
The Delhi Jal Board under the Aam Aadmi Party government continues to find urban water solutions. Last issue, we reported on a constructed wetland as a low-cost sewage treatment plant. This issue we have a report on how polluting effluents from an east Delhi drain are being cleansed and recycled as usable water. A start-up has provided the inexpensive technology. Governments need to show such flexibility if the environmental problems of cities are to be addressed. There is a need for diverse solutions — sometimes varying within a neighbourhood.
Outliers like Pradip Krishen bring passion and knowledge to the search for environmental answers. He had some key insights on Delhi’s tree for this issue. Krishen’s work on urban forests has been happening in Jodhpur and Jaipur Unfortunately, the Forest Department bureaucracy has not been eager to draw on his ideas.
We caught up with Chandra Bhushan who has set up iFOREST to use technology to scale up environmental solutions. He has a great track record of working with industry during his many years spent at the Centre for Science and Environment.

The running of a small media enterprise comes with many challenges but the journalistic satisfaction in bringing out our magazine every month is compensation in fair measure. It feels good to be able to do the stories we do and reach a growing number of appreciative readers. It is work we enjoy and doubly so because of its relevance in a complex emerging economy trying to balance growth with equity.
In 2003, when we started our venture, we were sure we were on to something exciting. India was in transition in multiple ways. We wanted to tell these stories of change. Instead of focusing on problems, we decided to go in search of solutions. With this as context, we went much beyond NGOs and activists to check out those entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, engineers and industrialists who were committing themselves to making a difference and closing the gaps in society.
In our journeys across India in 16 years we have come across thousands of changemakers about whom we have written in our magazine. We bring many of them together in this anniversary issue in what we have called The Mega Civil Society Hall of Fame.
We also have a special section on cities. What do we do about them as they attract an ever-increasing number of people? We have seven perceptive pieces on governance, healthcare, technology, migration, finance, waste and infrastructure. Cities are of great interest to us and we report on them through the year under these same heads.
Our interview with Harivansh, the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, explores several areas of concern relating to the spending of local area funds by members of Parliament. In Delhi, in the neighbourhood of Rajokri, a pond has been revived to serve as a component of a low-cost, natural sewage treatment facility. It is an example of the inventiveness that needs to be shown in the managing of our cities. Other cities should look closely at this example of cleaning up a congested area with a low investment.

Cities have a major role to play in India’s economy, but there is little that we can say we reliably know about them. Most cities have grown this way and that and problem has been piled upon problem. Over time, urban India has ended up being a gooey mess. In the absence of a contemporary urban vision and information that captures the rapid changes taking place, cities in India seem to be generally headed nowhere. 
There is also a dire lack of expertise in government which must shape urban spaces so that they are inclusive and accessible to everyone. It is a dismal picture and especially worrying because cities elsewhere in the world are drivers of growth and prosperity. From them come innovations and new technologies. India is being left behind.
The ecological map of Pune featured as our cover story is a good example of the watchful eye that can be kept on Indian cities. Cities that lose their green cover and natural systems are invariably in a kind of trouble that is both difficult and expensive to fix. Nature is an essential component of urban living for both the poor and rich alike. Keeping river systems, water bodies and forests alive is important. The Pune map comes from the Landscape Foundation India. The maps are important because they look at nature and history. We should know what is falling or has fallen off a city’s map.
The Delhi government’s plan for reviving tanks and lakes is an example. In an interview Ankit Srivastava, technical advisor to the Delhi Jal Board, tells us that more than a hundred water bodies are being revived in an effort to raise groundwater levels in Delhi. 
We are also happy to present Dr Pallab Ray who has just recently headed a study on antibiotic resistance in microbial organisms. The problem is a serious one, but Dr Ray tells us it is not unmanageable. Education and regulation can restore order over time. We need antibiotics for sure, but we also need microbes. Once again fitting into what nature intended is the solution.

FINDING a doctor has become increasingly difficult. Who should one go to?  Who should one trust? The absence of healthcare that is accessible, affordable, structured and competent is a challenge.Private facilities do well as businesses but give little to society. For an economy coping with inequality there is no substitute for a dependable and inclusive public 
Our story from Nagpur made it to this month’s cover for precisely these reasons. Reviving our primary health centres is vital to improving public healthcare. Doing so in rapidly expanding cities is even more important. Often, even incipient improvements in health and education facilities are advertised for political mileage. In Nagpur, the municipal corporation has worked silently. A partnership with the Tata Trusts has delivered outstanding results.
The draft National Education Policy made an appearance in the first days of the new government. It is good to see a government putting school education high among its priorities. Many of the draft policy’s suggestions are above dispute and are the right way to go. Madhav Chavan of Pratham correctly points out in this month’s opening interview that education suffers from a human resources problem. Finding the teachers and administrators will be a problem, as will be the funds.
This issue we bring you the Delhi Langar Seva Society started by Bicky Dhingra. At the Civil Hospital in Gurugram and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi this service is particularly welcome because people come from far away for treatment and have almost no local support. A hot and nutritious meal is very welcome. Plates are biodegradable and the food, instead of being cooked on location, is sourced from reliable suppliers. Most importantly, volunteers do all the work because this is their way of giving back to society.
Finally, we begin Tech Tales, a column by Kiran Karnik. He will dwell each month on the challenges of absorbing technologies in an unequal society like ours.

In this magazine we prefer to keep ourselves out of politics. Of course, as journalists, there would be no question of a political agenda on our part. Often, such stories tell us more about political realities than the cut and thrust of politics itself.
An election is a good time to see how all the concerns and aspirations add up. Modi’s appeal to voters, particularly the poor, doesn’t surprise us. He’s been seen as a doer who delivered real benefits to people. But the size of the mandate and the seemingly untrammelled power that goes with it sends out a message that needs to be better understood. The verdict is as much about Modi as the comprehensive rejection of the opposition. Flawed as our democracy might well be) the mandate given to Modi comes at the end of a full five-year term. To offer a perspective on the results, we asked Sanjaya Baru, our columnist and a keen political observer, to write the cover story this month.
We have a story from Maharashtra on solar dryers being used to dehydrate and package vegetables. Getting a good price for their perishable produce is a problem farmers face nationally. When there is oversupply farmers are at the mercy of the market. A farmer producer organisation near Nashik has been alerting its members about a glut and helping them dehydrate vegetables like bitter gourd so as to be able to reach a new range of customers. 
Environmental disputes indicate how poorly regulation is working. In Goa, a new airport has been cleared but a public effort has revealed that the environment impact assessment (EIA) report had ignored the need for cutting thousands of trees and jeopardizing forest cover and water bodies. Through Supreme Court intervention, the EIA was annulled. A new EIA is in the making but shouldn’t there also have been better scrutiny of the EIA in the Union Ministry of Environment. If regulators fail to do their duty, people step in as has happened in this case. The Rainbow Warriors in Goa deserve special praise.

Cooperatives come with well-known frailties. In a way, Campco is no exception. It was set up to serve the interests of areca nut farmers in Karnataka and has had to survive the pulls and pressures of multiple interests being at play. Campco is a really good example of how a cooperative can benefit farmers when it finds creative and purposeful leadership. Thanks to the late Varanashi Subraya Bhat, areca nut farmers learnt the advantages of hedging their bets by also growing pepper and cocoa. Taking a big leap into addition of value, they also set up a factory for producing chocolates. It was difficult to imagine a factory let alone build one from scratch and get it into production. Yet, in the face of innumerable odds, Campco has succeeded in becoming a significant maker of chocolates. In times when farm incomes are the reason for so much concern, we thought it would be useful for Civil Society to tell this amazing story of what Campco has achieved. 
Dr Harivansh Chaturvedi has been a friend of this magazine for a long time. A gentle but blunt person is what we have known him to be and we were delighted that he didn’t disappoint us in his interview on the state of higher education in India. Dr Chaturvedi has recently edited a volume of articles on the importance of better rating and accreditation of higher education institutions in India. It is an important collection because with rampant privatisation and the rapid decline of government-run institutions some introspection is urgently needed.
Increasingly, businesses provide the social solutions we have been waiting for. We feature in our business section a Punjab-based company which has a machine for segregating and composting garbage at source. A trial is underway in the Delhi Cantonment. Could this be a model for other municipalities? There is a strong case for harnessing entrepreneurial energy for better governance. The socially driven entrepreneurs we come across in Civil Society have a lot to offer governments.


Farmers know to find their way — given encouragement and half a chance. Our cover story shows how chikoo growers in costal Maharashtra have improved their lot through value addition to their distinctively cultivated chikoos. They are attracting attention with chikoo parlours and products like their profits, now the farmers have shown that they can get themselves a better deal.

In the interview of the month, Ravi Venkatesan tells us about GAME or the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship. Venkatesan’s take is that there will never be enough jobs unless small business flourish and meet local needs. And for the young it is important to make entrepreneurship appealing.

 In business we learn about how CSR has been doing through FICCI’s experience with Uma Seth and Nomenita Chetia walking us through the FICCI awards for CSR and what the learning has been over the years.

We also travel to Dalhousie for a salubrious holiday in the iconic hill station, checkout a jackfruit hotspot in Kerala and offer a selection of interesting books.

What does it take to empower women in Bihar? Project Lehar by the Aga Khan Foundation begins with adolescents by helping them get an education, learn skills and find employment.
 
We have multiple journeys tracked in our cover story, each a sign of hope that young women can assert themselves in their families and society at large and as they do so experience a level of empowerment they never have till they were helped.
 
A universal basic income is in the news. Sikkim plans it too. PD Rai, Sikkim’s Member of Parliament, explains that the state thinks it is necessary to give young people choices. If a basic income, however small is assured, the young will be likely to be more entrepreneurial and less likely to seek government jobs.
 
Our other features include how an agricultural college came to be set up in Goa, a profile of J.K. Banerjee, the rural surgeon who passed away in February, a business in small cold storages which can be set up in villages and a heartwarming encounter with the Afghan Charlie Chaplin.

We travel to the Biennale in Kochi this year for our February cover story. As events go, the Biennale is important to us because of the free-falling diversity that it represents. This time is more special than usual because of the radical shift in reaching out yet further across social and economic boundaries the usually ‘unheard’. In times when debate and dialogue are needed, the Biennale represents a space which we need to nurture

Also in this issue is a significant interview with Kiran Karnik on technology and the need for a human interface. Karnik’s views are particularly interesting in the context of Aadhaar and cashless transfers. Karnik served for many years in India’s satellite programme and then worked with Discovery for the launch of its channels in India. He played an important role in the IT sector as the president of Nasscom.

Our February issue seeks to provide our usual diversity with stories on tree climbing classes, fundraising for NGOs, a heritage map for Goa and an interview with Aruna Roy on what has been happening with rural job guarantee scheme.

Much has been said about developing the states in the Northeast of the country and large amounts of money have been shovelled in their direction over the years. Yet in multiple ways they remain neglected. Meaningful development should go beyond project finance and political ambitions. States in the Northeast remain poorly understood — to the extent that people from there suffer indignities. The most ugly examples of this is mindless violence sometimes unleashed in other states on people from the Northeast. It has been particularly bad in Delhi and the National Capital Region but it has also happened in Karnataka and, that too, in a cosmopolitan city like Bengaluru. 
Cussed and centralised government decision-making is also a form of violence with the difference that it emanates from official files. The line between development and destruction is a fine one and experience shows that it is easily and repeatedly transgressed. The Northeast’s mosaic of complex cultures, traditions and geographical realities are tough to fathom from a distance. As are the aspirations of people who seek to “mainstream” themselves but remain cut off.  
There is no single and easy way of bridging these divides, but cinema offers great opportunities. Sensitively made films leave a lasting impression. They leave an impression on a variety of people and have global impact. The filmmakers we have featured in our cover story are creative people who have told stories in small but meaningful ways. They have all received critical acclaim, making their presence felt at the National Awards. But, more important, they have raised the bar for connecting with the Northeast. They help us see the region from up close and beyond stereotypes. It is necessary to get really close because you will never know what you will discover. As filmmakers they have worked with very limited resources to create films that have the potential of touching minds and hearts. They are the rock stars of new Indian cinema.

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Civil Society is an independent magazine published from New Delhi.
 
It was launched in September 2003 to tell stories of change from across the chaotic landscape of post-reforms India.
 
A newly growing economy has winners and losers — as journalists we wanted to tell the stories of those who were making it and as well as those who were getting left behind.
 
In the past 15 years, Civil Society has come to be known for its refreshing style of covering people, events and trends. We are credited with redefining mainstream concerns in the Indian media.
 
Civil Society's reportage has brought to national attention individuals and groups who play leadership roles and drive change but get overlooked. We have shown that there is an India that exists beyond prime time.
 
This has been possible because we moved out of big media jobs to create a small and efficient enterprise through which journalists could look for stories where it may not be fashionable to look for them.
 
A democracy thrives on credible information. Small media entities, freed up from the demands of big capital, allow journalists to innovate and explore new frontiers.  A large and complex country like India needs more alternative voices.
 
Started with just Rs 4 lakhs (about $6,000) of personal savings, one small car and a single computer, Civil Society has shown that it is possible for professional journalists with skills and clear values to build influential enterprises in the media.

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Civil Society - April 2020

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