It was nearing Memorial Day weekend, and I was getting more and more nervous about my candidacy exam at the end of June. I hadn't started my preparations yet, and I was in two minds about attending the conference till the very last moment. But finally I decided to go ahead with my plans and five of us drove down to Boston, for what turned out to be an enriching experience and an exhausting trip.
One of the things that I really remember about the conference is the discussion that we had about the hundred Block Plan (HBP). We had been discussing this at our regular meetings, and I had read quite a bit about the plan. But somehow I was not that convinced about HBP, and I had my own doubts about AID getting involved with HBP that needed extensive funds. But, at the conference, hearing Balaji explain the plan, and discussing all our apprehensions with him, dispelled all my doubts. For those who are not familiar with this plan, here is a brief explanation of what the plan is all about.
The first thing which strikes us, and which perhaps leads to skepticism is the huge scale of the project. 100 blocks = 10,000 villages = 20 -30 million poorest people directly being affected by this plan. The reason for doing it in so many blocks is that it would generate the enthusiasm of a movement and bring in a lot of forces and people that otherwise is difficult to mobilize. Also, it is important to remember that there is already a volunteer base and contact persons in the majority of these places. These volunteers have done extensive village level work in the past and are quite committed to the goal of India's development.
During the first phase of the plan, a national call for village, block and district level mobilization of people will be given. In 300 blocks and districts, seminars, street theatre, workshops, etc will be held. Out of these 300 blocks, the best 100 blocks will be chosen to start the program.
In these blocks, a number of programs will be developed over the next 5 - 7 years programs in the area of health, children's education, women's organization, savings and credit, adult continuing education and libraries, computer and vocational education centers, agriculture and enterprises, etc. Each program after the initial 2 -3 year training period (except for education which will need 5 years), will sustain itself with no outside financial support.
Apart from the obvious benefits of these programs, there will be other intangible benefits like attitude changes in the village volunteers, inspirational changes, the possibility of government taking notice and adapting this kind of plan and of course the possibility of touching every Indian.
If you are reading about this plan for the first time, you are probably not very convinced. But if you had got a chance to listen to Balaji speak, you are probably as excited about the plan as I am!!
The heated discussions afterwards about the amount of money that AID should commit for the plan, and about what our priorities are, was very interesting. But we could not come to a decision at the conference, and it was decided that we should all get back and discuss this again at our chapter meetings, before arriving at a decision.
The other new direction of AID, that was discussed during the conference was the "Saathi" program. The concept of the Stimulated Volunteer is a natural extension of our Fellowship idea. From time to time we come across persons who show every inclination to want to contribute to the development of India somewhat along the lines envisaged by us. However, they might lack the means to carry out their ideas. Our input would be to provide support - financial or in kind so that the person can proceed without having to worry about feeding him/herself and their dependents. We seek out people by interacting deeply with them and invite them to become Saathis of AID for a while, so that we can learn from them, and they can benefit from us. Individual chapters had been having discussions on this idea and this session aimed to finalize the mechanics of deploying the stimulated volunteerism program. All of us voted unanimously that AID should go ahead with this program. But we could not reach a consensus about the criteria for selecting the Saathis, means of communicating with them etc. Again, it was decided to continue this discussion at the individual chapter meetings, and reach a consensus.
This article won't be complete without mentioning the guest speakers who gave excellent talks.
There were quite a few workshops that we attended, to learn more about various issues.
We were so used to reviewing projects with all the standard questions, that I had never stopped to ask myself what exactly we are looking for in the so called ideal project. The workshop on reviewing projects really made us think about this, and also made us realize that not all projects that we approve are good in all respects.
The other major thing that we accomplished during this conference was an attempt to decentralize the work that only the AID -headquarters at Maryland used to handle. After intense discussions, we finally agreed on a plan to try distributing the workload to other chapters.
At the end of it all, we were really tired and ready to take a break for half a day of sightseeing in Boston. On the way back, I was really happy that I decided not to miss the conference...and even as I am writing this now, I am happy that I managed to pass the candidacy exam!!
-- by Kavitha Nellore