India’s non-governmental sector is flourishing, but should we be celebrating? Environmental consultant Jonathan Galton reflects on his experiences of community empowerment programmes in Rajasthan.
here is a stretch of road in Udaipur, North India, known affectionately as the “NGO belt” on account of the clutch of Non-Governmental Organisations to which it plays host. With remits ranging from medical welfare provision to challenging conventional education, Udaipur’s not-for-profit sector is a microcosm of India as a whole.
Of these NGOs, Seva Mandir is one of the best-known, perhaps due to its impressive reach across southern Rajasthan and its links to one of India’s premier diplomatic families, the Singh Mehtas. In his recent book, India: The Road Ahead, much-loved writer and broadcaster Sir Mark Tully uses Seva Mandir as an example of a wider social movement to empower communities to challenge India’s traditional social hierarchy while ensuring the ethical use of resources.
I experienced Seva Mandir by volunteering on two projects: a forest management plan for a mountaintop hamlet with no electricity or running water, and an assessment of youth career prospects in a small town. Rural India astonished me – from the chicken sacrifice I observed in the house of man whose son worked in Kuwait, to the seven-star hotel that employed staff from Jaipur and Calcutta and ignored the labour on its doorstep. My attempts to persuade the hotel to sponsor village youths in hotel management training were unsuccessful, but this did not blind me to the patient dedication of my co-workers to the health, education and employment programmes they promoted.
Seva Mandir itself was hard to fathom. The way it groaned under the weight of its bloated workforce seemed characteristically Indian, as did the labyrinthine bureaucracy I encountered at every turn. Equally Indian, on the other hand, was the strong combined sense of conviction and creativity among the more inspiring staff members. It was also encouraging to meet Indian students from a prestigious rural management college on their fieldwork placements. Mostly from privileged urban backgrounds, they were actually more shocked than me by the poverty they encountered in their own back yard.
Indian NGOs have faced their fair share of criticism over the years, and allegations of inefficiency and corruption are not entirely unfounded. Such criticisms, however, should be set against the ability these locally-run organisations have to reach deep into communities, build relationships and plant seeds of change in a way that other sectors cannot. India is richly stocked with NGOs and they continue to flourish. Write them off at your peril.
