A powerful weapon!

This one question started to bother me day in and day out. What is education in real? I mean, lot of people question themselves through their courses. Some fight it out, some drop out, some do enjoy, but my question today is how many of us can really derive a leverage from it. Yes, people do get jobs passing out of a university, but that’s not the leverage I am talking about here. It is becoming more evident these days to me that it is those learning that cannot be quantified in a grade sheet that will matter the most. Not because I decided to spend my time inside a forest with people instead of getting a Master’s degree. The civic issues around are only increasing. I am not being cynical here. I am in awe of all those people who are onto the job in real to tackle them to the roots. They are an amazing set of people with intent and a direction. I know some of them very personally. However the following discourse is not about them. It is about those set of people with intent and who have no direction. It is about to create that intent and give a direction to empower a whole new generation of citizens into problem solvers.

Well, there has already been a lot of talk on the government being open to its people in its policy formulation. Public policy is a field of research. The universities today are helping create practitioners and also scholars in public policy and management. We have highly motivated bureaucrats, at least a handful of them. There are a lot of voluntary organizations working in that space. There is however one sector that is not empowered enough to tackle civic issues. Them, citizens! Us! So where should we really start on this. Going through a few notes of mine I come to realize how ill-informed I was before. And one thing became clear that Public policy is not meant to be understood by the practitioners only.

After having said that, my life really starts becoming tough. You see, it takes just language to talk about an issue. It is only when we get down trying to solve a problem will the void start to show up; which is precisely why I started to speak about education upfront. Off late I am hitting a few books trying to understand certain things. I am amazed at the fact that there is a theory or more for anything you can think of in this world today, which means to say, the people before us have not sat quietly. And so the onus is clearly on us to take this forward. Of course not theorize further, but use them to provide ourselves a starting point to our work. Although it seems very boring to sit for hours and study all the theories on public administration, I feel it is extremely important. It gives you such a brilliant perspective about the society you are living in.

The social studies we have studied in school helped us get good grades in History, Geography and Political and Economic Sciences. Well, to share a personal experience with you, I have had an excellent teacher in higher primary and middle school who explained to us so beautifully about the kingdoms and increased the excitement in drawing and reading maps. The best was reading a physical map but for me now, and my work the political maps seem more relevant. However it was great fun understanding them. I loved understanding civics as a subject as much as I hated history remembering the tenure of various kings. But now I am not able to rule that out. Most of our social issues today have a lot of strings attached still to all those things we studied in a history class. I love the forests, which means I greatly respect the soil. Geography teaches the science behind them and a lot of nature’s behavior. Ideally it should help us connect more to nature, but we are somehow evidently pushing away from it. Learnt properly, social studies gives you the most relevant information passing out of school.

Especially in our country (I can at least be sure of my place, Bangalore) that social studies is treated as just a subject that shows up in a grade sheet and that it passes by without notice. Think about it, it is the only opportunity we get to learn in a structured way about our possible engagements in this world living inside the society we have all created for ourselves. All that we have created were not existent. All that is created therefore is not established but is evolving and so it does. And there lies an opportunity to work towards a more prosperous evolution. In my case and most of my friends we are still lost in understanding our ecosystem properly; forget working towards its betterment. There is a clear disconnect somewhere. It is not evident as we are not concerned about the gaps. It doesn’t really affect you upfront even if you remain ignorant about the gaps. You can still have a life.

The question however is, can that life be good? I am telling, this gap can be bridged. The evolution into a prosperous society is possible. At least I am sure of the first step towards it. What can possibly stop today to work on their interests in life? Our country has come through a lot of difficult times to be able to help its people develop economic safety nets to their capacities and under 70 years from independence it is able to help at least a few people follow their passion. You come to Bangalore and you will understand what I am talking here. The startup sector in India today is worth everything you have. I mean an investment of over 1.43 billion dollars in 2015 alone and we still have 5 more days to be done with this year. Speaking of which it is time we start believing that we can have executable solutions to the most complex social problems. It is time to get educated for real. As Nelson Mandela says, "Education is the most powerful weapon which can be used to change the world". It is time to get back to work. 

The third sector!

The state versus market debate has been on from a long time. It may be a century old debate or may be two. Looking back, it becomes clear, that the problems of the developing countries lies majorly in its administration efficiency and the political willingness to make things right. In my view, at least, it is certain that treating every transaction like that in a marketplace can solve most of our problems today. Nevertheless the limitations of this are pretty evident and therefore calls for an involvement of state at various quarters. But the opportunity to innovate that opens up will be surely visible for those who are concerned and a bit creative. The opportunity for larger social innovations will open up for the people to adapt and improve. The opportunities in a market place. Yes, market and social innovations, I think is the way forward. 

The societies have progressed from being a community to come together and form a democracy, driven today by the economy. Well this calls for a larger complexity in its processes and it’s services. And a direct impact on its delivery system of these services. There are just too many people today in India that calls for a lot of social innovation for solving most of our civic problems. And the kind of services taken up by the state are varied, some independent some in partnership and some by the private agencies we call today as businesses and the rest by the civic sector through the mission of the various voluntary Organisations that exist. What is actually required is a socio-economic progress, accountability to the people by the primary agency responsible, a positive, persuasive and a pro-active governance. To achieve this the state alone will not be capable. It cannot add much to the economy of the nation and retain profits in the national exchequer for the prosperity of the nation. It depends on the taxes paid by not just its individuals and the industries, but also the state relies on businesses to provide innovative solutions to specific social problems. 

On this regard, if we dig deeper into the current situation the ecosystem seems to be extremely co-operative for such businesses to thrive and make a difference. And I need not elaborate the impact today by companies that are coming up in the e-commerce and logistics sectors broadly making life more easy and comfortable. I would call them as not just a business, but as social machines. Social is a largely misunderstood word. Let us not even think about how social work is viewed. At least for me it is not something great that we get into it, it is something which everyone should. It is something you do still doing whatever you are doing for a living. It is a moral responsibility. I don’t see a greatness that needs to be showcased to the world for doing something ‘social’. I mean, what else can be done apart from it being social, right? At max, I can only sympathise for people not having a concern to the situation around them and not working on it. On that regard, businesses are social too, as long as they are solving a real problem. 

Business has a framework. It has a clear direction. It will be such a fantastic way to address the problems of our society if the solution to it becomes a reason for the existence of a business, right? For the sole reason that the solution providing system will be sustainable and scalable. The challenges however still remain. It is important to have a clear revenue model and that it addresses a real problem and offers a solution to it. If it does not fit into these the aforementioned requirements, one can simply trade to make money. Not much fun in it, isn’t it? We have all interacted with the various institutions of the government, more so with the businesses around. We spend our 70% day in the marketplace. That’s assuming nearly over 8 hours in a day. All this is not knew, not at all.

But a big question that stands tall in front of me today is, what are we doing in that remaining 30% of the day we get for ourselves completely every week. Assuming a 3hours per day for 6 days and 12hours a day, in a week, we have 1560 hours that gives us 65 days free per individual in an year, that we are out of this marketplace. With the population of India being 1.252 billion, we have 1900 billion hours free in an year by its entire population. If we can activate at least 30% of this we have around 585 billion hours in an year to work on addressing our social problems. So, time is not a concern. We have it. The more concerning issue is, how are we spending this time of ours?

It is clear and is definitely logical for us to accept that the state is not an one-stop solution for all the society’s problems. It needs participation. And for a business to attend to every social issue is near impossible. Like for example, one cannot charge for looking after a kid left alone by its parents and relatives. I mean the state run orphanages/ hostels or those run by non-governmental institutions cannot be treated with business-like solutions. And a lot of such such similar services too. But for those which can, should. And for the rest, there has to be a civic engagement. It is easier said than done. It is subjective to say the least, the idea of a nation's third sector after state and business, its citizens, participating towards better governance. For a developing economy like ours, Indians should come together with one single voice to tackle our internal issues. But, how? No, this post is not to start a movement online. If we have to see more objectively, the case becomes quite simple at the outset. I believe, that there is a solution and I have it. 

We have set up a democracy, for our sake. We elect a government which is responsible for a progressive public administration. It is our moral responsibility not just to vote, but to participate. To promote openness and transparency in administration, we need to participate. To measure performance of service delivery and evaluate it to suggest improvements we need to participate. To decentralize authority and get rid off pseudo power structures that exist today in the society, we need to participate. Speaking of which, I just realized how messy it is to participate today. But there has to be a way out. I am sure, there is. Why cannot we be positive about the systems we have developed for ourselves. I had just remarked on the social media, that, collectively we are all becoming more stupid, hitting on all the outbursts on #beefPolitics #Intolerence #AssemblyElections #RahulGandhi #Modi, damn!. We are becoming more stupid because we lack direction. We are concerned, but we are lost. Think about it now. 3hours of free time a day and how we are spending it fretting and ranting about these issues (on social media of course) instead of doing something to tackle them in real. Its easy to blog and post, isn’t it? I know this for a fact. I mean, why would I start another blog. Damn! Opinions are easy and they come free. Take this if you want.