Dear Sathyasree:
I am glad Sudhakar already clarified the issues. I was quite
distressed to see you upset -- but that was because of a huge
misunderstanding.
Sudhakar is ACTUALLY doing something very similar to what you all
are. His organization is called INFRASYS ( www.infrasys.biz) , which too
we support in little ways. But it is structured somewhat differently.
That is all.
I copied Sudhakar in on the correspondences, because, like Ravi
,yourself and all your associates, Sudhakar and his associates ALSO
have a far better standing than the likes of us, of the issues that
made these NGOs necessary and in being able to see and judge
the role of government and how it is NOT playing it, thus making
the burdens on NGOS like RVC ,Infrasys and others that much
greater.
The context however was a raging debate in Assam Net, some eight
months back, where some of my esteemed colleagues argued that Assam
needs MORE NGOs, that there are not enough of them, that it is the
best or only way to counter the effects of governmental
dysfunction. It was in this debate where I countered that
NGOs could not to be a SUBSTITUTE for effective governance. But as
usual, I was outnumbered by my vocal opponents, who are,
usually, opposed to holding the feet of the government that really
have control over resources and the constitutional
responsibilities, to the fire, because they cannot accept the
idea of Assam's disaffections and its many causes, including
decades of bad and ineffective governance which is aided and
abetted by bad central policies. They also see my argument as a
devious attempt to justify ULFA and promote Assam's sovereignty
aspirations :-). Thus they oppose governmental reforms, knowing full
well, that it amounts to --'apwnar naak kati xotinir jatra bhongo
kora' (cutting off one's nose to spite one's face).
And to prove that their diagnoses are the correct ones, they
usually argue that the Assam people are bad, that they do not raise
their voices, do not write to national newspapers, or scream loud
enough against their politicians, that they keep electing bad people,
that they are traditionally and perhaps genetically lazy (
lahe'-lahe'), that change cannot come in governance because they do
not demand it; so on and so forth. Some are even bold enough to assert
that Assam gets what it deserves. And that no amount of governmental
reforms would change PEOPLE ( as if that is where the problem lies),
so on and so forth.
That was the crux of the matter.
I mentioned about my friend Sudhakar's views - as from someone
who ought to know first hand-- as an expert witness -- in the note to
Santanu, who, incidentally, understands it very well and needed no
persuasion. But it was an opportunity for me to rub-it-in on
my opponents in my lonely battles in assam net :-).
Take care, and as always, with the very best.
c-da
PS: I will explore the idea of obtaining assistance for your
website in another post to assamnet.
At 4:29 AM -0800 1/5/06, Sathyasree Goswami wrote:
Dear Mr. Sudhakar,
Thank you for your mail. I understand your concern with respect to the structural and systemic inequalities that are at the roots of the problem and that is very right. I also thank you for your appreciation of efforts. We hope you will be able to visit this part of the country and RVC someday, we welcome you in advance.
By the way RVC is looking for support from experts in help to design RVC website; we at RVC have all the contents and photographs but we have certain technical doubts, incase you know nyone who can guide us and help us with the technicalities of designing a website please do get us connected.
Thanking you once again and appreciations for your concerns
warm regards
Sathyasree
Coordinator Systems
RVC Akajan, Dhemaji Assam
murthy sudhakar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Dear Sathyasree Goswami:Clearly I have upset you .. and I apologise in advance. My letter while perhaps making certian broad stroke statments is equally full of admiration of the good and courageous work done by NGOs like RVV.My letters beigns with such an admiration and ends with urging each of us to become like you. So my letter was not in any way a condemnation of the good work done by good and caring NGOs.
Now I must quote you; 'Most of the work that RVC does in partnership with the community is to work towards gauranting people's entitlement based on right to food , right to health and health, right to livelihood, right to education, right to human security, "This precisely makes my point - That any NGO NEEDS to do this is indicative of the a system that has abandoned those you and NGOs help.
You state: you may not be aware that there are many NGO groups and alliances in India who work towards putting pressure on govt not to escape from its constitutional responsibilities and RVC is a part of such alliances.Yes you are correct..I was not aware of this.Lastly you state: I am upset at all of you have taken the authority to discuss us RVCians and our 450 villages without really knowing us and being with us in our struggle here in Akajan.Nothing I wrote was intended to offend you or your specific organization. If I did it was un intentional. But I stand by much of what I wrote with respect to the structural and systemic inequalities that are at the roots of the problem that you, Ravindranath and other dedicated men try to heal and resolve.in admiration, beleive me, most sincerelysudhakarmurthy sudhakar...infraSys
http://www.infrasys.biz
From: Sathyasree Goswami <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: murthy sudhakar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], assam@assamnet.org
CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Very upsetting
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2006 20:07:30 -0800 (PST)
Dear Friends,Some response to the mail of Mr. Sudhakar:-we must recognize the fact that he (and many others ) are simply performing functions which the State by constitutional guarantee ought to be committed to delivering.It may be pointed out here that Mr. Sudhakar has not really gone into the indepth work of RVC with a team of 80 Assamese girls and boys (not Ravindranath only) and 3 Community Based Groups Karpungpuli Kini Kebang, Aamar Bazaar and Durjug Nibaran Samity with a subscription of over 450 villages from Dhemaji and Dhakuakhana area. Most of the work that RVC does in partnership with the community is to work towards gauranting people's entitlement based on right to food , right to health and health, right to livelihood, right to education, right to human security,
Today NGOs is a huge multi crore industry in India; a corrupt and self-serving industry by and large,Can anyone give a blanket cover without understanding the socio political equations of the grassroots. There are corrupt NGOs but many are called corrupt by the vested interest groups like politicians, middlemen and brokers.... Many NGOs in India face these pressures while trying to work with people in enuring their rights.... they are then tained by this powerful political, contractor, broker lobby as corrupt, do people who give blanket cover understand these pains?? and how NGOs still exisit inspite of such pressures??But today the governments have come to rely on the NGO sector for many aspects of governance and providing the basics for its citizenry. This process absolves the government from its constitutional responsibilities! NGOs, Charities and Trusts - well intended as they may be-can deliver only remedial programs and cannot effectively mend structural and systemic inequalities and injustice that create, generate and maintain poverty.you may not be aware that there are many NGO groups and alliances in India who work towards putting pressure on govt not to escape from its constitutional responsibilities and RVC is a part of such alliances. I can vouch for RVC in case of the People's Health Movement (PHM) where we are working for "Health for All Now!" but the most important issue here is that can you ask people to go on campaigns for their rights with a hungry stomach and an ailling body?? Do you not have to take care of these issues (which you are terming as "charity" first?)These inequalities stem from unjust resource allocation resulting in denial of basic health, education and housing at a minimum, to a vast majority and access to much previleges and wealth to a small stratum. This is not a political sloganism but stark ground reality.if you know this is the stark ground reality, can each such well knowing individual not write to the respective Assam govt department and ask for the relevant information? HAve you done this on your part as the Right to Information Act is also in place and the Assam GOVT has passed its rules. By the way Right to Information Act was not brought by Government but by NGOS (RVC was involved right from the begining 10 years ago) and activist who were arrested and went to different kinds of torture also..This is my request to all of you not to make voluntary work "person centric" but to look at it holistically.... I hope you realise that if all the 450 villages did not allow RVC to work with them or if the destitute people did not allow Ashadeep to work with them, then they would not be able to do what they do......I am upset at all of you have taken the authority to discuss us RVCians and our 450 villages without really knowing us and being with us in our struggle here in AkajanNot meaning to hurt anyone but apologies if I have done soSathyasree from Akajan village in AssamPS. This mail is written from the village and we have got the internet facility here where over 300 asomia boys and girls have internet acess, but this has come after struggle where ravindranath Director RVC's life was under threat also!!
murthy sudhakar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Dear Friends:I am Sudhakar - that friend of Chandan's referred to in his mail.Even though I am never at a loss for admiration for the likes of Ravindranath and their extrordinary dedication and service, we must recognize the fact that he (and many others ) are simply performing functions which the State by constitutional guarantee ought to be committed to delivering.Today NGOs is a huge multi crore industry in India; a corrupt and self-serving industry by and large, with some extrordinary and truly remarkable exceptions. This is a harsh indictment, I realize that. But today the governments have come to rely on the NGO sector for many aspects of governance and providing the basics for its citizenry. This process absolves the government from its constitutional responsibilities!NGOs, Charities and Trusts - well intended as they may be-can deliver only remedial programs and cannot effectively mend structural and systemic inequalities and injustice that create, generate and maintain poverty. These inequalities stem from unjust resource allocation resulting in denial of basic health, education and housing at a minimum, to a vast majority and access to much previleges and wealth to a small stratum. This is not a political sloganism but stark ground reality.This is acceptance, perpetuation and encouragement of inequalities is violence or himsa practiced by all of us. Blaming the government has simply become convenient.So when we are moved to charity , we are sub-consciously recognizing injustice and when we act to practice charity we are doing our part to reduce the symptoms of injustice. But the causes lie eleswhere and it takes great courage to tackle this. And it will take many more Ravindranaths and conscious effort by each of us to bring about change.Can be done... no needs to be done. This is ahimsaanbudanmurthy sudhakar...infraSys
http://www.infrasys.biz
From: Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Roy, Santanu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <assam@assamnet.org>
CC: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: [Assam] Assam Trip-2
Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2006 12:12:20 -0600
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li {padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0;}Thanks Santanu. I am pleased to be able to spread the good news, tiny as it may be, isolated as it may be.My classmate and close friend from IIT, Murthy Sudhakar,of South Pasadena, California, also is doing something similar in Tamilnadu, with Dalits and other such people left behind by the kind of 'PROSPERITY' Ram and others love to cite in these 'PERFORMING' states.I was talking to Sudhakar the other day about RVC. He raised a point, without MY coaching him :-), about something I debated extensively here in Assam Net months back- that NGOs cannot be a replacement for the GOs, who have the resources and the responsibilities for doing what these NGOs are doing with little resource and fighting the GOs who work against the interest of these people, or do not co-operate or even pose as obstacles.But without NGOs like RVC, so many would be in so much worse shape than they are.Most of all though I wanted to touch upon the point you raised about "--integration of the Indian economy into the global economy ".*** This is something that is a very complicated issue and I have learned, a little bit, how such 'global bodies' as the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and WTO agreements are ACTIVELY and DIRECTLY harming many if not MOST of these people in the margins of our societies, their livelihoods, their environments and their very existence.Let me give you one tiny example someone gave me:World Bank sponsored EXPERTS from Australia, private CONSULTANTSthat is ( they do not come free like NGO Volunters you know?)were in Meghalaya,apparently to study and recommend sanitary latrinedesigns or some such thing, and had one ( or three I forget) prototypebuilt, and ran up a bill for $ 3,000,000 or some such outrageousnumber, which is a part of an even larger an mount being LENTto Meghalaya by the World Bank.(And just for perspective, RVC helps build a semi-sanitary latrine forthese uprooted people, with a fiberglass pan with a trap , 2 meterlong PVC piping, a bamboo enclosure withthatched roof and ameter deep X meter in diameter perforated concrete lined pit forabout $ 20 each ( Rs. 800 or so).Does this money come free for Meghalaya? You take a guess. Wouldthe politicians NOT want to take this kind of a loan for DEVELOPMENT?Again take a guess. When will the loan become due? Who will pay for it?And what kind of DEVELOPMENT would Meghalaya get in return?I can only guess.I may not be accurate of the details. But you get the picture,don't you? There are elements of a HUGE, monster scam in these deals.Same as in the mega loans for mega dams in Arunachal or elsewhere.Similar is the story of the Bogibeel bridge that is causing majorhavoc -- that you will believe only when you see what is goingon out there. Some people will make out like bandits. And the returnscould be waved as PROGRESS, but is it really?Ravindranath gave me another example about the negative impact of WTO's market opening. The people he ministers to are people who will be sold useless goods--like make-up, fancy clothing, cell-phones, but will buy NOTHING in return from them. It is not MUTUAL trading! It is ONE sided EXPLOITATION.You being the economist will know far more about these than I would. But from the little I saw and heard, it does not at all look good Santanu. It left me very angry.Perhaps you will enlighten us.Take care,c-daAt 10:57 AM -0600 1/3/06, Roy, Santanu wrote:
Dear Chandan-da:
Thank you for writing about the RVC. It was very uplifting. I think we should try to do something to help in our own small ways - whenever we can.
Of course, hats off to the people who dedicate their life and skills to such organizations.
For me, a greater sign of hope is the fact that an environment for such voluntary enterprises exists now. I don't think it would have been possible fifteen or even ten years ago. The success stories of some skillful and dedicated NGOs in other parts of the country (along with the bad eggs that are just out to make money), the recognition they receive now from society at large and the incentives from international bodies and global voluntary organizations that are a part of the integration of the Indian economy into the global economy - have created some of the essential conditions for sprouting of such activities in more neglected areas of the country where none but the missionaries had gone before. I also think it is a sign that sufficient "peace" exists for people to feel secure enough to work in such long term projects and that bodes well for the future.Regards,
Santanu.
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