Conversations in the Hinterlands

By Azeez Gupta

A quick introduction – I have recently joined the Pratham Institute as part of a pursuit for happiness and meaning. The past 2 years spent working at a renowned consultancy saw me engage in stimulating work with fantastic minds – yet I could never escape the nagging feeling that I was coasting. I missed the violent single-minded passion I experienced during my most fulfilling college years, and hope that working for a cause again will help me re-discover those emotions.

Seeing as I came to Pratham as a relatively green, mostly city boy, who had grown up seeing the poor, but had never really interacted deeply with underprivileged people, I was promptly packed off to see all our programs and centers on the ground. The resulting 2 week trip through the hinterlands of Maharashtra was truly eye-opening. I met dozens of our students, learnt about their lives and heard their stories. In the process, I went from being an armchair intellectual to… well, definitely not an expert, but someone who’s starting to get a pulse of India today. The things we all pontificate about, but really know very little about. In this post, I will try to put down some of my observations, as I remember them. These are random and unstructured reflections, often mundane, and accompanied by my unsolicited comments – but may be interesting to my peers, as cossetted as I was.

• I asked students what they liked best about their time at Pratham training centers. The quickest and most enthusiastic response – “Shaving”! Shaving?! Here we are, claiming to turn your lives around, give you opportunity and all that jazz, and what you like most is shaving?! It was very endearing – and jokes apart, the shaving was part of a broader theme of following rules and regulations and living a structured life. Concepts that we elites resist resolutely, but are both important for and attractive to these young people who’ve lived their lives in relative chaos.

• The level of attention in classes and devotion to learning was extraordinary – it put me to shame, looking back at how many of my batch-mates and I went through our IIT education.

• I heard the personal stories of many students – most were from villages and had absolutely no jobs available at their homes. They spent their times roaming around the fields aimlessly, with nothing to do, and occasionally working on the farms. It bought the scarcity of opportunities home to me very starkly, especially in contrast to the vast expanse of options I have been blessed with all my life.

• The more things are different though, the more they remain the same When I asked what kids use the computer center for, after their daily studies are over, there was a lot of sniggering followed by the euphemism ‘watch videos of movie stars on the internet’. Young men are the same everywhere!

Achieving Self-Sufficiency

- by Saurabh Shah

India’s young adults, specifically those in low-income villages, survive on low-wage positions that may pay around $1 per day, forcing them to leave educational pursuits due to familial and financial pressures.  Pratham believes that helping these young adults access opportunities to improve their skills can ultimately improve their livelihoods.  After I learned about these issues, I wanted to enhance my contribution to Pratham beyond fundraising efforts and be engaged on the ground.  I received my MBA from UCLA Anderson in June 2012, and my employer, the Boston Consulting Group, provided a fellowship for me to engage in a social impact project for three months.  Excited to get involved, I worked on strategy for Pratham Institute, which aims to bridge the gap between India’s growing need for skilled manpower and the lack of vocational training in rural areas.  The objective was to make the Hospitality Center in Aurangabad self-sufficient – the costs to run the center outweigh the student fee revenue, primarily due to the high fixed costs to operate extensive facilities, i.e., guest rooms and external training rooms available for company off-site retreats.  Achieving self-sufficiency was imperative to its longevity since PACE-Aurangabad was a flagship center and had the largest capacity of vocational training centers across all industries.  Based on my analysis, I recommended that the center raise its price for guests to meet those of neighboring hotels, target additional customer segments such as local schools and decrease costs by creating student committees.  I presented my results to Madhav Chavan, who received it well and provided suggestions so that the project could be shared with current donors.

In addition to the rigorous analytical work, I formed long-lasting friendships with those in the Pratham Institute group by conversing over the three daily cups of chai, taking a turn in leading out the stray cat that decided to make our office its home, and communicating in Gujhindlish (my own language, a mix of Gujarati, Hindi and English).  Not having been to India in nearly twenty years, I stepped outside my comfort zone and became self-sufficient in the process.  Most importantly, I saw how teachers were changing the lives of students through PACE programs on a firsthand basis, and that the passion Mr. Chavan and the rest of the Pratham team radiate is addictive, serving as continual sources of inspiration.  I look forward to staying involved with Pratham on both the fundraising and operations fronts as I progress in my professional career.  I thank Pratham for an exceptional opportunity.

- Saurabh Shah, currently works with BCG, and volunteered with Pratham Institute as part of a social impact fellowship program provided by them.

My experience at an Awareness Mela

- by Ashvini Sawant

I recently visited the Awareness mela (job fair) that was conducted in the Beed district of Maharashtra. The purpose of an awareness mela was to provide information about employment opportunities to youth in that particular locality and to give information and guidance related to the different courses that Pratham Institute offered. This Awareness Mela was one among the 5 melas that was to be used as a proof of concept.

The moment of epiphany

- by Rohin Kumar

As the last student stepped out of the room, I looked down at my watch , it was 9.00 pm. I has spent the past 12 hours with our hospitality students. It was the placement-day and things had not gone as expected. I had just got done with the mock interviews for our students to help them feel more confident. As I stepped out, the lights in the hallway of our training center in Aurangabad were dim. I got a call from my mother and throughout the conversation my frustration & irritation was quite evident, as I kept on reiterating to her that I had been working for 12 hrs and things didn’t seem pretty. After my conversation with her, I was thinking of different ways to motivate myself and the students, when lights from the admin room drew my attention. It was Avinash, our admin guy (actually our one man army), who takes care of many ground-level things in the centre, from collating data to reaching out to the students.

Swathy's first-hand experience at Pratham

- by Swathy Swaminathan

I joined Pratham after an MBA, with an aim to make a difference to the world.  I joined on the 10th of May 2012 and haven’t looked back since. The place is brimming with people out to make a positive impact on the world. My first few days were spent getting to know everybody at Pratham. I was quite amazed at the network and the reach of Pratham. Every Pratham employee worked with the ultimate objective of improving someone’s life. The passion for change, and the determination to work towards the same, was widespread amongst the employees. For those who are travel enthusiasts there is no dearth of opportunities to visit the spectacular countryside. Pratham’s network reaches out into the remote corners of the country. Depending on the program one is associated with, one can travel the length and breadth of the country. One can witness the amazing work that Pratham is doing for the poor kids across the country. One can feel the dedication of our ground level staff in improving the lives of the students.

All in all, Pratham has widened my horizons and given me a new perspective on the social sector. I am sure it can do the same to you.

- Swathy joined Pratham a few months back and works in the Placement team.