5 unique individuals bringing freedom back to India
It is the eve of the 67th Independence Day in India. Over six decades have gone by since our forefathers laid down their lives for an Independent India. Yet there has been a nagging sense of disillusionment. Many times we ask ourselves where is the freedom we once fought for so passionately? Corruption, pollution, social inequality, gender violence, poverty, child abuse etc. are some serious problems plaguing India today.
Many young people have taken note. And they have risen up to the challenge already. These true role models of the new India can certainly teach us a thing or two about winning freedom back.
Jaago Re pays a tribute to five such young freedom fighters of the new India.
1) Mathew Jose- Freedom of environmental sustainability
Reduce, re-use, recycle: a message we have learnt from our childhood. In India, however, only 20% of waste is recycled. In a country that is constantly at risk from pollution and scarcity, freedom of resources is hugely important.
Inspired by rag-pickers in Indian slums, who survive off selling waste items, 26-year-old Matthew Jose set up the NGO, Paperman. The charity works with over 120 schools in Chennai alone, setting up recycling units, selling waste items to raise money, and spreading awareness.
His efforts have had three main impacts. Waste has been reduced; rag pickers in Chennai have benefited from increased business; are saved from excessive exploitation and are finally earning some respect and recognition.
Funds have also been generated for other important causes. In a year-and-a-half, Jose says, they "managed to raise enough to fund a year of school education for 100 girls across India" while schools in Chennai, such as Church Park School also help institutions such as old age homes, giving freedom to the elderly.
Paperman is so successful because it funds itself, using the economic incentive to create sustainability and free India from the problems created by excessive consumption and waste. Inculcating these ideas right when kids are young; initiatives like this can bring freedom from waste and pollution, and dignity for manual labour in India, which is long over-due.
2) Pooja Taparia- Freedom from child abuse
In 2004, Pooja Taparia watched a moving play about a child trapped in the bondage of sexual abuse. In a space of the last 10 years, she has set up an NGO which directly helps 70,000 and indirectly reaches 200,000 people, freeing children and their families of the psychological problems created by abuse.
According to a recent study, around 50% of India's children suffer or have suffered from sexual abuse, yet most people have no knowledge about this crime. Pooja's NGO, Arpan- Making Little Difference, aims to free India of this taboo and in the long-term change the country's attitude.
The charity provides trauma counselling for families, awareness sessions for police officers, and guidance for teachers, students and several other NGOs. Pooja's belief is that in order to free India of this recurring pattern of exploitation, "the society at large has to come together".
When she started her campaign, there were only 26 people listening, but now her voice has been heard, and the result has been incredible.
3) Dhruv Lakhra – Empowerment and Freedom of the disabled through employment
Dhruva Lakhra is the perfect example of a social entrepreneur, who has used his Oxford education and business background to free a highly disadvantaged group from the daily struggles they faced. Lakhra set up a courier business in Mumbai that delivers packages to well-known clients. The one defining factor of Miracle Couriers: all 64 employees are deaf.
In India there are nearly 10 million deaf people and around a third fail to find any employment. Those that do, gain little or no sympathy owing to ‘invisible’ nature of this disability: there is no way of knowing if someone is deaf. Lakhra himself was inspired after a bus journey, when he asked the person sitting next to him a question and received no response. It is this simple communication gap that makes it hard for deaf people in India to attain real economic freedom.
Lakhra chose the courier industry because it relies on sharp visual skills, such as map reading and building recognition, but does not need good verbal communication. Delivering over 65,000 items every month, Miracle Couriers has gained global esteem and has won awards such as the Helen Keller Award and the 2010 National Award for the Empowerment of People with Disabilities.
Lakhra's organisation has therefore been extremely important in raising awareness for the problems faced by disabled people in India and in freeing them from the societal judgement they face daily.
4) Saloni Malhotra- Freedom from the rural brain drain
Saloni Malhotra set up a high-quality IT BPO firm in rural areas of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The firm taps into the talent of over three hundred untrained and unqualified young people from the villages in these states, helping to create a generation free from geographical constraints for education and employment.
The BPO provides back office services and computer analysis for organisations from over 15 different industries, in the process giving its employees, mainly women, life skills for computer and IT services. Freedom of employment is so important for the youth of these communities, because they are no longer being forced to commute or migrate large distances to find economic stability.
The organisation has three main objectives: 'to bridge urban rural gap through employment'; 'to plug the rural brain drain' and 'to improve local economic growth'.
As Malhotra discovered, in India over 60% of BPO employees are from relatively rural areas. Therefore, diversification into the countryside is hugely important for the freedom of both rural and urban areas.
5) Anand Shah- Freedom of clean and accessible water
Anand Shah's NGO, Sarvajal, has brought clean and cheap water to thousands of communities across NorthWest India, freeing them of daily struggles caused by lack of access to water. His method? Water ATMs.
Each solar powered tank serves water to around 50 households in decentralised communities and operates through the use of a smart card. Water is delivered at a certain time daily and people are free to choose their own collection time. "The reason the ATM idea is so critical for us", Shah says, "is because it allows us to sell clean water that's not in a bottle. You come to it and you hit a button and water comes out, like the machines at grocery stores in the U.S."
Shah's groundbreaking idea is now also operational in slums in Mumbai and Delhi. The main reason it is so successful is that all machines are manufactured locally. “Instead of buying from a large company, you’re really buying from a neighbor” he says. In addition, machines are controlled through a device that is simply composed of mobile phone technology. So if there is a problem in the system, the solution is a phone call away, rather than a cross country trek.
This new technology promises to free millions of people from water-borne diseases in India and will also significantly change the way the world thinks about water accessibility.
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