fellow connect - july 2013

Special Edition

Special Edition | July 2013

i | FELLOWCONNECT JUNE 2013

Editorial MANOJ CHANDRAN MEERA VIJAYANN OLINA BANERJI

ContributorsCHAYA BABUASHOKA STAFF OLINA BANERJISAMAR HALARNKARJULIE WISCOMBEROMULUS WHITAKERTARIQUE MOHAMMAD QURESHI

Talk to us [email protected] www.indiaashoka.orgAddress 54, 1st Cross, Domlur Layout Bangalore 560071 IndiaTelephone 080-4274-5777

Design SAMYAK JAIN

DisclaimerThe views and comments mentioned in the articles of fellowconnect are that of the respective authors and do not reflect the position of ashoka on these issues.

fc | CONTENTS

Photo courtesy: http://www.brammer.com/

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ContentsThe ‘shapeshifting’ Of Social Enterprise:

Is Our Moral Compass Due North? Chaya Babu

Ashoka Staff

Ashoka Staff

What MOOCs Can Offer Social Entrepreneurs

Looking Back, Going Forward

Re-Imagining Cities Olina Banerji

Samar HalarnkarWhatIndia Needs

Julie WiscombeStorytelling For Social Change

Pest Control, Naturally Romulus Whitaker

Walking the Talk: The Journey of a Young Fellow Tarique Mohammad Qureshi

FELLOWCONNECT JUNE 2013 | ii

Yet, for many, the Fellowship has been a way of sharing, which has worked wonders. Ashoka Fellows have led by opening their vast knowledge and rich experiences, which have repeatedly been of immense value to not only other Fellows but also several other social entrepreneurs.

It is with this opportunity in mind that Ashoka created the Hub (http://hub.ashoka.org). As the names suggests, Ashoka Hub is a place where Fellows meet, share, learn, explore newer pos-sibilities and create rich bonds. The Hub envisions the further strength-ening of the Ashoka Fellowship by leveraging the power of technology. There are more than 1,000 Ashoka Fellows worldwide who stay connect-ed through the Hub. In the coming months, the Ashoka team will add sev-eral new features to the Hub with the aim of making it easier for the Fellows to enjoy the power of the Fellowship.Even as we create new technology plat-forms to strengthen the Fellowship, we are aware of the immense advantages face-to-face interactions offer. This is why Ashoka has been conducting the regional Fellow meets every year. This

year, we have planned a unique gath-ering where we expect Fellows to con-vene from all parts of the country. The Ashoka Future Forum, planned in Pune during June 27-29, 2013, will be a first-of-its-kind get together of leading social entrepreneurs of the country.

Once again, in line with our vision for the Fellowship, the Future Forum will unleash a new set of opportunities for Ashoka Fellows to share and develop new partnerships. For the first time in India, we will have such a huge con-vening of the biggest social innovators, whose collective experiences, expertise and thought leadership will provide new dimensions to problem solving.

The Future Forum will also offer us an opportunity to interact with oth-er stakeholders in society to explore wider opportunities for collaboration. There is no denying that all the com-munities of society have their respec-tive roles to play as problem solvers. Social entrepreneurs will lead other stakeholders in the process of collec-tive problem solving.

We hope that this gathering will help us identify a new paradigm in the Fel-lowship. What is the new definition of Fellowship that we will need for the new wave of social entrepreneurship that the country is currently witness-ing? Who could be our new partners and what would their roles be?

Finally, my thoughts go back by three years, when we decided to launch Fel-lowConnect, the latest edition of which you hold in your hands. The magazine was borne out of the need for a unique Fellowship platform that helps its read-ers leverage the thought leadership of Ashoka Fellows. It is your constant encouragement and support that has helped us take FellowConnect from strength to strength over the last three years.

We look forward to your continued support.

With respect,Manoj [email protected]

fc | EDITORIAL

Photo courtesy: flibbertygibberty.files.wordpress.com

The Future Forum wil l offer us the opportunity to interact with other stakeholders in society to explore

wider opportunit ies for col laborat ion.DDear Ashoka Fellows,

Fellowship (n): a friendly association, especially with people who share one’s interest. So says the dictionary. It’s not a coincidence that the Ashoka Fellowship follows the spirit of this definition. It’s just that instead of ‘shared interests,’ the foundation of the Fellowship among Ashoka Fellows is shared vision- a vision to see the world a better place for its people and others.

This edition of FellowConnect celebrates the coming together of the associa-tion of Ashoka Fellows, people who stand apart because of their action and the consequent impact.

Ashoka has always believed that the greater strength of Fellows lies in the Fellowship. Indeed, each one of you has created a niche for yourself through your innovation and the social impact you have led. There are several among you, who have figured out the numerous benefits of the Fellowship and have taken the lead. You’ve identified spaces where you could collaborate with other Fellows, create value and impact disproportionately higher than what was possible individually.

01 | FELLOWCONNECT JUNE 2013

look at all possible structures, and pick the one that best suits what you want to do.”

The non-profit model was once deemed the only way to guarantee purely altruistic work, which in itself was a prerequisite to doing good. The idea that one shouldn’t make money while benefiting others was a given. This idea is now evolving for most in the social enterprise space, where those making an effort to create sub-stantial impact understand that bring-ing a business model into the picture is often the avenue to scale and growth.

Mark Hand at FirstLight Ventures, a social investment fund, has seen diverse hybrid models. “You could have a non-profit that owns a for-profit company, you could have a for-profit company that has a non-profit arm, you could have two legally separate entities that are nonetheless run by the same person,” he says. “I’ve seen structures where an entrepreneur has a non-profit in the United States and a for-profit and a non-profit in India, so it’s hybrid on multiple levels. And they can operate independently; sometimes a non-profit will contract with a sister for-profit to do work.”

Professionals in the field agreed that

hybrids do not seem to inherently sug-gest an ethical dilemma as long as cer-tain criteria are met: transparency with the philanthropists who have given grants to fund the non-profit, proper governance, and operations that guard against straying from the goal of social good.

According to Hand, the litmus test for sound practices is the question, “Is the for-profit that I control materially ben-efiting from the non-profit that I con-trol?” For example, Sourav Mukherji, who researches inclusive businesses at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, is working on a case on a hybrid organization in which the non-profit subsidizes much of the hu-man labour costs of the for-profit, with the employees’ time allotted largely to the latter while their salaries are paid for by the non-profit. This would typ-ically be a huge red flag, but in this case, the donors are aware of how their funds are being utilized.

“I go and spend time with the found-ers, with the employees, and study the organization from the inside,” Mukherji says. “Once you do that, you really will get a feel for whether it’s a socially-oriented organization or not, so for me the legal structure is really something that is not very critical.”

T

The ‘shapeshifting’ Of Social Enterprise: Is Our Moral Compass Due North?

By CHAYA BABU

The past few decades have seen some significant changes in the social sector and how we define products and ser-vices aimed at making a positive im-pact in society. As what we call a �social enterprise’ continues to evolve � espe-cially in India, where we have a vibrant and active network of organizations working on issues relating to poverty, the environment, human rights and others � new and different structures are emerging in the space. � ith phil-anthropic capital not being a sustain-able strategy, many pure non-profits that started off over a decade or so ago have diversified into programs and verticals that generate revenue for the organisation.

Hybrid organizations, models that have a non-profit entity and a for-profit entity under the same umbrella, have gained popularity. This trend will only pick up momentum next year with the new tax code being enforced where income earned through charitable means gets subjected to a �� percent corporate tax rate when it exceeds ten lakhs. But in our acceptance of these dual-mission organizations, how do we ensure that we tackle the potential conflicts between profit and impact ap-propriately?Legal structure is a detail

“My view is that the legal structure is just a very technical thing,” says Anu-rag Agrawal, co-founder and Senior Vice President of investment banking at Intellecap, a social-sector advisory firm. “It’s basically a facilitator because if you want to do something, you need to do it in a particular structure, so you

This idea is now evolving for most in the social enterprise space, where those

making an effort to create substantial impact

FELLOWCONNECT JUNE 2013 | 02

Dasra is a bit more particular when it comes to hybrids, stressing to the en-trepreneurs they work with that such structures should probably have two discrete entities that are each able to operate independently. Vikas Bahl, So-cial-Impact Manager at Dasra, says that flow of finances and human resources should stay on their own respective sides. “In essence there should be two separate organizations. There’s a lot of partnership and collaboration between the two, but if you want to be able to exist in this model and have a clear line of philanthropic capital coming in to the non-profit arm and a clear line of investing coming into your for-profit arm, you’re going to have to be able to show that.”

Social entrepreneurs have a big enough challenge as it is in running a start-up, but trying to locate the del-icate equilibrium between distinct, sometimes opposing, objectives of two entities adds a layer of complexity that can certainly be a strain on the organi-zation. It’s imperative that the hybrid on the whole is run in a fashion that caters to this balance, but it’s a conflict of interest to have the entrepreneur be the head of both parts. “If you’re run-ning a non-profit and for-profit, your non-profit donors are going to want to feel like you’re dedicating your efforts to scaling impact, while your for-profit funders are going to want to make sure you’re growing the business. A hybrid structure can build that tension right into the company,” says Hand. “When we invest in a company, we want to see that the entrepreneur is putting all of

his blood, sweat, and tears into that venture.” This means that for investors like FirstLight, a connected non-profit might be seen as a distraction.

Choosing someone to head the oppo-site entity and make proper decisions that are in line with the enterprise’s vision is integral to avoid losing sight of the organization’s purpose. The en-trepreneur has to consistently monitor this pull from each side and find the right people to create an internal sys-tem of checks and balances. Integrity, motivation, efficiency, and skill set are all very important factors in assess-ing the quality and fit of people, but building the right team is most crucial. There tends to be different mindsets in non-profits and for-profits which could create a DNA problem. “Tradi-tionally in India, ‘profit’ is still a dirty word, so that sometimes becomes a cultural issue within the organization,” explains Madhukar Shukla, professor of organizational behaviour at XLRI School of Business. “So while the en-trepreneur might be quite comfortable with it, those people who have joined and have been with an NGO for a long time might perceive it as mission drift.”

This concern that there is some innate contradiction on the part of those who are more impact-focused than busi-ness-focused is not unfounded. Many in the field can’t help but reference the downfall of microfinance, a fresh memory of mission drift, as a warning of the persisting dichotomy. “One of the big things which you find is that it’s easy to scale a process, it’s easy to scale a business model, but it’s very difficult to scale an ideal or an ideology. And

social enterprises are based on ideol-ogies,” Mukherji says. “The moment you try to scale that, the ideology might get diluted, it might get completely changed, and that is the biggest danger that I see in this area.”

On the whole, the issues surrounding these models, once transparency is assured of, are less moral or ethical than they are cultural. The belief sys-tem of an organization is central to its cohesion and ability to function well, so even in a hybrid structure, divergent views can cause some strife. The en-trepreneur has a big job of working to stay on target and leading a group of people with varying backgrounds and philosophies on social impact. Legal parameters and more formal shape-shifting of the space may affect the benefits, risks, and possibilities for hy-brids in the future, but currently they provide an ideal path for for-profits to have a platform for awareness and ca-pacity building and for non-profits to grow and see their mission through on a bigger level.

Chaya Babu is a freelance journalist and correspondent for India Abroad. Her articles have appeared in The Alternative, IQ and the Chicago Tribune among other publications.

When we invest in a company, we

want to see that the entrepreneur is putting all of his blood, sweat,

and tears into that venture

This article originally appeared in The Alternative and has been re-published on permission.


look at all possible structures, and pick the one that best suits what you want to do.”

The non-profit model was once deemed the only way to guarantee purely altruistic work, which in itself was a prerequisite to doing good. The idea that one shouldn’t make money while benefiting others was a given. This idea is now evolving for most in the social enterprise space, where those making an effort to create sub-stantial impact understand that bring-ing a business model into the picture is often the avenue to scale and growth.

Mark Hand at FirstLight Ventures, a social investment fund, has seen diverse hybrid models. “You could have a non-profit that owns a for-profit company, you could have a for-profit company that has a non-profit arm, you could have two legally separate entities that are nonetheless run by the same person,” he says. “I’ve seen structures where an entrepreneur has a non-profit in the United States and a for-profit and a non-profit in India, so it’s hybrid on multiple levels. And they can operate independently; sometimes a non-profit will contract with a sister for-profit to do work.”

Professionals in the field agreed that

hybrids do not seem to inherently sug-gest an ethical dilemma as long as cer-tain criteria are met: transparency with the philanthropists who have given grants to fund the non-profit, proper governance, and operations that guard against straying from the goal of social good.

According to Hand, the litmus test for sound practices is the question, “Is the for-profit that I control materially ben-efiting from the non-profit that I con-trol?” For example, Sourav Mukherji, who researches inclusive businesses at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, is working on a case on a hybrid organization in which the non-profit subsidizes much of the hu-man labour costs of the for-profit, with the employees’ time allotted largely to the latter while their salaries are paid for by the non-profit. This would typ-ically be a huge red flag, but in this case, the donors are aware of how their funds are being utilized.

“I go and spend time with the found-ers, with the employees, and study the organization from the inside,” Mukherji says. “Once you do that, you really will get a feel for whether it’s a socially-oriented organization or not, so for me the legal structure is really something that is not very critical.”

T

The ‘shapeshifting’ Of Social Enterprise: Is Our Moral Compass Due North?

By CHAYA BABU

The past few decades have seen some significant changes in the social sector and how we define products and ser-vices aimed at making a positive im-pact in society. As what we call a �social enterprise’ continues to evolve � espe-cially in India, where we have a vibrant and active network of organizations working on issues relating to poverty, the environment, human rights and others � new and different structures are emerging in the space. � ith phil-anthropic capital not being a sustain-able strategy, many pure non-profits that started off over a decade or so ago have diversified into programs and verticals that generate revenue for the organisation.

Hybrid organizations, models that have a non-profit entity and a for-profit entity under the same umbrella, have gained popularity. This trend will only pick up momentum next year with the new tax code being enforced where income earned through charitable means gets subjected to a �� percent corporate tax rate when it exceeds ten lakhs. But in our acceptance of these dual-mission organizations, how do we ensure that we tackle the potential conflicts between profit and impact ap-propriately?Legal structure is a detail

“My view is that the legal structure is just a very technical thing,” says Anu-rag Agrawal, co-founder and Senior Vice President of investment banking at Intellecap, a social-sector advisory firm. “It’s basically a facilitator because if you want to do something, you need to do it in a particular structure, so you

This idea is now evolving for most in the social enterprise space, where those

making an effort to create substantial impact


Dasra is a bit more particular when it comes to hybrids, stressing to the en-trepreneurs they work with that such structures should probably have two discrete entities that are each able to operate independently. Vikas Bahl, So-cial-Impact Manager at Dasra, says that flow of finances and human resources should stay on their own respective sides. “In essence there should be two separate organizations. There’s a lot of partnership and collaboration between the two, but if you want to be able to exist in this model and have a clear line of philanthropic capital coming in to the non-profit arm and a clear line of investing coming into your for-profit arm, you’re going to have to be able to show that.”

Social entrepreneurs have a big enough challenge as it is in running a start-up, but trying to locate the del-icate equilibrium between distinct, sometimes opposing, objectives of two entities adds a layer of complexity that can certainly be a strain on the organi-zation. It’s imperative that the hybrid on the whole is run in a fashion that caters to this balance, but it’s a conflict of interest to have the entrepreneur be the head of both parts. “If you’re run-ning a non-profit and for-profit, your non-profit donors are going to want to feel like you’re dedicating your efforts to scaling impact, while your for-profit funders are going to want to make sure you’re growing the business. A hybrid structure can build that tension right into the company,” says Hand. “When we invest in a company, we want to see that the entrepreneur is putting all of

his blood, sweat, and tears into that venture.” This means that for investors like FirstLight, a connected non-profit might be seen as a distraction.

Choosing someone to head the oppo-site entity and make proper decisions that are in line with the enterprise’s vision is integral to avoid losing sight of the organization’s purpose. The en-trepreneur has to consistently monitor this pull from each side and find the right people to create an internal sys-tem of checks and balances. Integrity, motivation, efficiency, and skill set are all very important factors in assess-ing the quality and fit of people, but building the right team is most crucial. There tends to be different mindsets in non-profits and for-profits which could create a DNA problem. “Tradi-tionally in India, ‘profit’ is still a dirty word, so that sometimes becomes a cultural issue within the organization,” explains Madhukar Shukla, professor of organizational behaviour at XLRI School of Business. “So while the en-trepreneur might be quite comfortable with it, those people who have joined and have been with an NGO for a long time might perceive it as mission drift.”

This concern that there is some innate contradiction on the part of those who are more impact-focused than busi-ness-focused is not unfounded. Many in the field can’t help but reference the downfall of microfinance, a fresh memory of mission drift, as a warning of the persisting dichotomy. “One of the big things which you find is that it’s easy to scale a process, it’s easy to scale a business model, but it’s very difficult to scale an ideal or an ideology. And

social enterprises are based on ideol-ogies,” Mukherji says. “The moment you try to scale that, the ideology might get diluted, it might get completely changed, and that is the biggest danger that I see in this area.”

On the whole, the issues surrounding these models, once transparency is assured of, are less moral or ethical than they are cultural. The belief sys-tem of an organization is central to its cohesion and ability to function well, so even in a hybrid structure, divergent views can cause some strife. The en-trepreneur has a big job of working to stay on target and leading a group of people with varying backgrounds and philosophies on social impact. Legal parameters and more formal shape-shifting of the space may affect the benefits, risks, and possibilities for hy-brids in the future, but currently they provide an ideal path for for-profits to have a platform for awareness and ca-pacity building and for non-profits to grow and see their mission through on a bigger level.

Chaya Babu is a freelance journalist and correspondent for India Abroad. Her articles have appeared in The Alternative, IQ and the Chicago Tribune among other publications.

When we invest in a company, we

want to see that the entrepreneur is putting all of his blood, sweat,

and tears into that venture

This article originally appeared in The Alternative and has been re-published on permission.

Photo courtesy: Koshyk

By ASHOKA STAFF

MOOCs can offerSocial Entrepreneurs

What Photo courtesy: Kalanese Kid


WWhen Rajan Kumar signed up to take “Foundations of Business Strate-gy” on Coursera last month, he never expected to get feedback on his own company’s business operations. But within a few weeks, the biotechnology entrepreneur had recruited a team of 20 students to analyze Genome Data Systems, Inc.

“When I signed up for this course, I had no expectation of having people analyze my company,” Kumar said. Still, working with a diverse range of students—from complete novices to ex-perienced business professionals—led Kumar to realize the merits of devel-oping a diagnostic instrument instead of pursuing a service-based business model. Their research, in turn, helped him develop a business case and pres-ent the new approach to investors. In a thank-you note to students, he wrote: “Your discussion helped me sharpen my arguments and made me challenge my assumptions.”

Kumar’s experience is part of a grow-ing exploration of real-world problem

solving in educational contexts. And much of this co-creation is done online on platforms like Coursera, which has partnered with more than 30 top uni-versities to offer courses in just about everything from rhetorical composi-tion to computational neuroscience—all free of charge.

Kumar is not alone: Organizations ranging from bakeries to construction companies to educational non-profits have successfully crowdsourced in-sights into their business operations from more than 50,000 students in the business strategy course presented by the University of Virginia and taught by Darden School of Business pro-fessor Michael Lenox. Initial results have been overwhelmingly positive, suggesting that university students can indeed use their learning to contribute meaningful solutions to the needs of established organizations.

The opportunity to engage MOOC participants offline extends beyond business strategy, and will only become more common in the future, as Lenox

This post was written by former Youth Venturer Nabeel Gillani (@coursolve),

co-founder of Coursolve, and Amit Jain (@jaindrops), lead researcher at

Coursolve. Coursolve connects courses with organizations to empower students

to solve real-world problems.

For more information, please visit: http://coursolve.org.

Photo courtesy: Niyam Bhushan


The concept can be applied in any

number of domains. Imagine a course on graphic design where

students prepare solutions for real non-profits or a computer

program course where students

develop code for small startups with limited

budgets. The potential is enormous.

explains: “The concept can be applied in any number of domains. Imagine a course on graphic design where stu-dents prepare solutions for real non -profits or a computer program course-where students develop code for small startups with limited budgets. The po-tential is enormous.”

Supporters of social entrepreneurship like the leaders represented at the Skoll World Forum are highlighting the importance of data in addressing the impact of social enterprises across industries. Accordingly, another up-coming MOOC offered by Bill Howe at the University of Washington, “In-troduction to Data Science,” is cur-rently inviting organizations of all types to sign up to receive free data analysis help from students, including assis-tance with predictive modeling and data visualization.

Free, open access to talented students from around the world is one way to start meeting the needs of organiza-tions while also adding value to—and perhaps renewing credibility in—high-er education. However, MOOCs have

been criticized for their high attrition rates and low student engagement, and skeptics point to scholar David No-ble’s prescient warning that the com-modification of education in online settings would lead to the creation of “Digital Diploma Mills.”Yet the value of MOOCs lies directly within the students that take them—people with unique life experiences, interests, and passions that serve as lenses through which they see the world. These are the people—industry professionals, stay-at-home parents, recent graduates, child prodigies—that spend hours assessing each other’s work and responding to forum posts with no incentive beyond the pursuit of knowledge. Trusting these students to help others not only contextual-izes their learning, but also builds a network that connects and empowers them to bring theories of change from the classroom into the marketplace.

If we hope to build education systems that prepare students to be the prob-lem solvers of tomorrow, let’s engage them to address the pressing challeng-es of today.


Looking Back, Going Forward

Re cting on three decades of operations

in social change was never going to be easy. Ashoka’s

fel lowship has grown at a robust pace every

year, adding to the league of exceptional ly talented, creative and

empathetic social entrepreneurs. In the run-up to the Ashoka India Future Forum,

we asked ve Fel lows about the impact Ashoka has had

on their work, and also about how they would l ike to see the

fel lowship evolve. Here’s what we heard.

Lisa Heydlauff, Going to School

“Ashoka has a lovely recognition value and that is one of the best things about the Fellowship. I was an early-stage entrepreneur. It meant a lot to me to have this new idea recognised, docu-mented and communicated in the way the fellowship has done. Today, the idea has been recognised by the gov-ernment.

This shows that you are doing some-thing new, off-beat and being an in-dividual. It has also been wonderful to connect with various committed visionaries who are never run-off-the-mill and have new approaches to prob-lems. There are always ways in which Ashoka fellows can work together on new projects and network across sec-tors. Whether it is education in Mum-bai or rural livelihoods in Tamil Nadu, there is always someone you can call even if it is just for a point. There is also a sense that there are other people who are working on issues they firmly believe in and are committed to seeing it done.”

Merry Barua, Action for Autism

“The Fellowship allows you the oppor-tunity to meet and get insights about their work. It also lets you know about the NGO sector in this country. Asho-ka’s involvement has been expanding in many ways and that is very interest-ing. The benefit for me as an Ashoka fellow has been more in terms of giving my work credibility and importance. Especially, since I am involved in a niche area. The network offers a great value to connect and learn.

The journey has been a positive one. I think Ashoka is a great organisation and it is great that it is now looking at young people who are getting into the sector.”

I think Ashoka is a great organisation and it is great that it is now looking at

young people who are getting into the sector.

There is a sense that there are other people who are working on

believe in.


Ashwin Naik, Vaatsalya

“We have met incredible folks through Ashoka. Whenever fellows visit Bangalore, we invite them to talk at our office and this had helped us build a relationship and learn together. It is a powerful network and gives us a good platform to exchange ideas. We have also built personal connections in the area of health and this has really helped us evolve.”

Dipendra Manocha, Saksham

“I like Ashoka’s concept and ever since my election, the organisation has motivated me to develop and imple-ment my idea in a much stronger way. It gave me the space to experiment and prove its success. The Ashoka model is such that it’s able to test the reliabil-ity of the idea and is able to help im-plement it.

The Ashoka fellowship has also let me forge both formal and informal part-nerships. With several peers who be-long to the fellowship, I have been able to create roadmaps and visions for the future. Because of the quality of the fellowship, these partnerships come with a level of confidence and trust and take the association to a much deeper level. Going forward, I would like to see Ashoka formalise as a major player in the sector and act as a nodal point for all its Fellows.”

Biplap Paul, Bhungroo Vikas Private Limited

“Ashoka has changed the way I visual-ize change. In relation to a changemak-ing vision, I realised that one needs to visualize their own role in the world around them. Ashoka taught me to open up my heart, and my vision, very broad.

Ashoka took me from being a simple field worker to someone whose idea can potentially impact a large number of people, and put my work on the global map. Through platforms like the HUB and Globaliser, I’ve been able to reach wider audiences and new, dedicated mentors. My engage-ment with Ashoka has changed my ap-proach to the work I do and find rele-vance in the work of fellows in Africa.

Ashoka is not a one-time association. It’s about building the kind of person who can ensure exponential growth and impact. The whole philosophy of ‘systemic change’ is unique. We have to realize that we don’t live in times where we can wait for development to happen to us. We need self-sustaining solutions. That’s only possible when this vision is shared with everyone and Ashoka’s doing just that.”

Ashoka is not a one-time association. It’s

about building the kind of person who can ensure exponential growth and impact.

The organisation has motivated me

to develop and implement my idea in a much stronger way.

It is a powerful network and gives us

a good platform to exchange ideas.


Ashwin Naik, Vaatsalya

“We have met incredible folks through Ashoka. Whenever fellows visit Bangalore, we invite them to talk at our office and this had helped us build a relationship and learn together. It is a powerful network and gives us a good platform to exchange ideas. We have also built personal connections in the area of health and this has really helped us evolve.”

Dipendra Manocha, Saksham

“I like Ashoka’s concept and ever since my election, the organisation has motivated me to develop and imple-ment my idea in a much stronger way. It gave me the space to experiment and prove its success. The Ashoka model is such that it’s able to test the reliabil-ity of the idea and is able to help im-plement it.

The Ashoka fellowship has also let me forge both formal and informal part-nerships. With several peers who be-long to the fellowship, I have been able to create roadmaps and visions for the future. Because of the quality of the fellowship, these partnerships come with a level of confidence and trust and take the association to a much deeper level. Going forward, I would like to see Ashoka formalise as a major player in the sector and act as a nodal point for all its Fellows.”

Biplap Paul, Bhungroo Vikas Private Limited

“Ashoka has changed the way I visual-ize change. In relation to a changemak-ing vision, I realised that one needs to visualize their own role in the world around them. Ashoka taught me to open up my heart, and my vision, very broad.

Ashoka took me from being a simple field worker to someone whose idea can potentially impact a large number of people, and put my work on the global map. Through platforms like the HUB and Globaliser, I’ve been able to reach wider audiences and new, dedicated mentors. My engage-ment with Ashoka has changed my ap-proach to the work I do and find rele-vance in the work of fellows in Africa.

Ashoka is not a one-time association. It’s about building the kind of person who can ensure exponential growth and impact. The whole philosophy of ‘systemic change’ is unique. We have to realize that we don’t live in times where we can wait for development to happen to us. We need self-sustaining solutions. That’s only possible when this vision is shared with everyone and Ashoka’s doing just that.”

Ashoka is not a one-time association. It’s

about building the kind of person who can ensure exponential growth and impact.

The organisation has motivated me

to develop and implement my idea in a much stronger way.

It is a powerful network and gives us

a good platform to exchange ideas.

RE-IMAGINING

CITIESBy OLINA BANERJ

Photo courtesy: Flickr User/ Must Bol07 | FELLOWCONNECT JUNE 2013

We must ‘own’ our spaces to improve them.

The meaning of ownership here is linked more to

responsibility than a sense of propriety.I


Olina Banerji has a background in communications and works with the Framework Change team at Ashoka India. She can be reached at [email protected].

CCityscapes are a great canvas for change. Yet, to address most of our civic troubles, the onus lies either on the authorities or on a handful of citizen action groups. Our cities can change with big ideas, but only when we expand this idea of change to taking responsibility and constructive action. This can, as two social entrepreneurs have shown us, be done by re-imagin-ing the city as a ‘resource’ and citizens as the ‘force of good’.

Through their work with communities, they have shown how the presence of a platform for creating awareness, a pro-cess of due recognition and training can help change the attitude towards civic participation.

Being part of the system

We must ‘own’ our spaces to improve them. The meaning of ownership here is linked more to responsibility than a sense of propriety. Jasmeen Patheja, founder of the Blank Noise Project and an Ashoka fellow since 2007, says that citizens must be able to see them-selves as part of the system, and by ex-tension, the solution. “Citizens need to recognise and activate their roles in so-ciety,” she adds. Patheja’s community initiatives to curb street sexual violence and change the discussion around women’s safety from protection to rights, has in the recent past challenged several orthodox views about women’s engagement with the public sphere. Her interventions are almost always community-based, and rely heavily on participation by citizens. One such on-going initiative is the ‘Safe City Pledge’ that has everyone from taxi drivers to gynecologists pledging to make women around them feel safer and bring a par-adigm shift in how women are viewed and view their own bodies.

Piyush Tewari, founder of the Save Life Foundation in Delhi, believes that to enable any kind of civic participa-tion, the right questions must be asked. “The media needs to be sensitized into asking why road accidents happen, and what’s lacking in the way we design our cities and enforce laws that needs to change,” he says. Save Life Founda-

tion works on the model of a bystand-er network that involves the citizen and local police authorities to mitigate the impact of road accidents, while simultaneously advocating for change in policy towards ‘Good Samaritans’ who come forward to help. “A Good Samaritan law, which ensures punitive action against offenders and due rec-ognition and safety for volunteers, can help alter the culture of violence and apathy on our streets,” says Tewari.

Activating change

When it comes to driving participa-tion, both Tewari and Patheja value the medium as much as the message. Patheja did this with her ‘Heroes Ac-tion Project’ in Yelahanka, a residen-tial locality in Bangalore. “We orga-nized our intervention as a community laughter club, a format that the women there were already familiar with. It was an indirect way of occupying a space and it gave women the comfort to open up and share their experiences,” says Patheja. By the end of the week, she adds, there was an unlearning of biases and several differences of class and language were forgotten in a ‘safe-space’ being shared by these women.

For Tewari, it’s the multifarious nature of the intervention that helps. “When we began work in road safety, we had to focus on prevention as much as cure. It’s not enough to improve emer-gency services, but also make engi-neering and urban design evaluations. It was also important to tackle corrup-tion in the system,” says Tewari. The interventions, along with the Good Samaritan Law, are aimed at creating nationally an environment to fight in-justice and violence on the streets.

Re-telling stories

Changing minds cannot be a didactic process. Sometimes we need a bit of imagination to flip the problem on its head, and build a solution that starts from where despair ends. Patheja takes the example of the increase in rape cases reported in the media. While most people are alarmed by the rising numbers, she believes that it also

shows a trend where women and their families have been courageous enough to stand up to the violence. She en-courages creating positive narratives about the city to encourage citizens to take part.

Tewari is pushing participation by building trust in the bystander net-work. The aim is to turn the conten-tious issue of helping injured victims on the road into a positive experience by training them and also ensuring that their involvement results in recogni-tion and not harassment by corrupt police authorities. “The Delhi Police has already adopted some of our pre-scribed guidelines, where a Good Sa-maritan can help without identifying himself. We now need to ensure these are well enforced,” says Tewari. En-forcement, according to him, is even more important in creating this envi-ronment of changemaking, so that the ethic can function without a threat to life, freedom and well being.

Cities don’t transform overnight. It’s unlikely that we can change much from the outside, looking in. Yet the future of our cities lies in collaborative change - between citizens, the authori-ties, policymakers, the media, among other stakeholders. Both physical in-frastructure and mindsets must keep pace with each other. We need to re-imagine our cities and their people as resources who will fight to save their own futures.


Entrepreneurs who see the big problems, create the small solutions and see the beauty within

By SAMAR HALARNKAR

What India Needs

D


D“Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before, how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things one goes worrying about are of no impor-tance whatsoever.” Karen Blixen was eminently qualified to talk about beau-ty and richness amid difficulty and de-feat. A Danish writer, best known for Out of Africa, the sprawling, dreamy story of her solo attempts in the 1920s to run a coffee plantation in Africa, Dinesen should have visited India in 2013 to know what difficult times real-ly look like.

The growth rate is down. Governance is down. Corruption is up. Anarchy - even by India’s chaotic standard - is up. Poverty is down, but inequality is up. As for generating 100 million jobs over the next 15 years to cash in on the fading promise of the world’s largest demographic dividend, just ap-pears like fantasy. There is no better time for optimism, to search for beau-ty, richness and abundance, no better time for the social innovator.

India’s most successful social interven-tions have sprung from difficult times. The spectre of famine kicked off the Green Revolution. Milk imports, in a country where millions owned cows but could not get their produce to the market, created the white revolu-tion, making India the world’s largest producer of milk. The endless line of people waiting to make ‘trunk calls’ and ‘urgent calls’ led to the telecom revolution.

So, are all the big revolutions done? No, but India, now more than ever, needs millions of small revolutions to ensure its promise as a nation of tomorrow does not fade. These small revolutions are the blank spaces that

need to be filled in as the government attempts - however scratchily and shoddily - to re-engineer the gigantic systems that run India.

Take, for instance, a critical part of the health system, the 35-year-old In-tegrated Child Development Services (ICDS). It is the world’s largest pro-gramme for the health of children un-der six, and it was supposed to change the lives of poor, under-nourished children, to give flight to dreams and beautiful new things. To be sure, In-dian children survive longer and are better nourished than ever before, but that is not saying much. Overall, the ICDS has delivered a less-than-accept-able return on investment. This year, India will roll out an expanded, revital-ized scheme in 200 districts, spending Rs 1.28 lakh crore over the next five years, an increase of nearly 300 per-cent over the previous five.

So it is with a variety of sectors, from education to electricity. The needs are huge, the intentions of the state are good—even if the implementation and leakages are not—and there are so many gaps at every stage that social in-novators can find opportunities at the small scale or large. Apart from trans-formation, entrepreneurship is vital to India because it alone can offer the millions of jobs the country needs.

No organisation is more familiar with these opportunities than Ashoka. Af-ter 15 years, Ashoka Fellow Harish Hande’s Selco is confident enough of itself and its impact to call itself an energy service provider, where once it was an innovator and pioneer. In a sense, Hande, who has taken technol-ogy and employment to the grassroots, is making the transition from social innovator to system entrepreneur. If

the social innovator spots the gap, the system entrepreneur spots the mo-ment. He or she must then draw oth-ers in—whether experts or financiers or, indeed, the government—to seed the innovation through the system. But social innovation can function at every level in India. It does not have to scale up. It can remain small, medium, large or extra-large. What is important is that it goes from idea to implemen-tation.

The biggest opportunities obviously lie in systems that are the most shred-ded and offer obvious solutions and allow entrepreneurs to make best use of available educational and technical qualifications. This is why so many enthusiastic young men and women qualified in finance, engineering and medicine are creating companies or devising solutions that address India’s big problems.

From my interactions with these men and women, it seems obvious that they are more excited to do that than plug away at a mainstream job in the vast technology, medical and finance sectors. There is greater risk and strug-gle involved, but there is also greater satisfaction. It is the gratification that comes from creating something beau-tiful and rich in times of trouble. It is what India needs.

Samar Halarnkar is Editor-at-large for the Hindustan Times.

The biggest opportunities lie in systems that are the most shredded,offer obvious solutions and

allow entrepreneurs to make best use of available educational and technical qualifications.


Key insights from the Ashoka

Future Forum USA

By JULIE WISCOMBE

Storytelling For

Social Change

WWhen I hear the word ‘veteran,’ I pic-ture an old man with a beard, wearing an army t-shirt and hat. He might have a couple of tattoos and most likely he is holding a sign: ‘Homeless Veteran. Please Help. God Bless.’ Unfortunate-ly, this stereotype is very familiar in the U.S., where one out of four homeless men is a veteran.

I was presented, however, with an entirely different story of veterans at Ashoka’s Future Forum on May 30, 2013. In Washington D.C. the Asho-ka Future Forum brought together 400 of the foremost social innovators, business entrepreneurs, philanthro-pists and media to share their biggest problems and celebrate their most thought-provoking solutions. During the session, Storytelling for Movement Building, facilitated by Kara Andrade, Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, introduced me to Todd Bowers, a young, Purple Heart veteran who served for the US Military in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Todd was wounded when a sniper shot and hit the scope of his rifle, sending fragments into his face. He lost sight in one eye and hearing in one ear. Before joining the army, Todd studied Middle Eastern Affairs and Arabic at George Wash-

ington University. He worked with a Congressman for two years and today speaks out on behalf of Iraq and Af-ghanistan veterans. Todd’s story alone changed my perception of veterans. I now understand that veterans are so much more than just a stereotype of an old man with a beard. Today’s veter-ans are young and accomplished. Over 2.5 million of them are women and thousands of them are coming home every day, using the skills and lessons they learned in the field to build their communities. Todd’s story can change how US citizens view and respond to veterans—as it did for me. And there are thousands of other stories just like his.

Storytelling is a powerful tool for social change across all sectors. Not only do stories cause us to empathize and mo-tivate us to act, they also help us under-stand the important nuances of social issues and how to create effective solu-tions in response. As such, storytelling was thematically woven throughout Ashoka’s Future Forum. We talked about storytelling during the sessions, we dedicated an entire workshop to it, but most importantly we shared our stories with each other.

Here are three key insights about

Photo courtesy: Ashoka Global


Julie Wiscombe works with the Global Venture and Fellowship team at Ashoka.

utilizing storytelling as a tool for social change learned from Ashoka’s Future Forum:

1. There is power in being concise

Drawing inspiration from the Race Card Project, the ‘six-word story’ was a theme present throughout the Fo-rum. Each participant was invited to write down his or her six-word change-making story. And during Thursday’s evening program, new Ashoka U.S. Fellows were given the opportunity to introduce their work in just six words. For example, Sarah Heminger, found-er of the Incentive Mentoring Program shared, ‘Feel alone? Expand your definition of family’ and Kendis Paris, founder of Truckers Against Traffick-ing said, ‘Truckers Against Human Trafficking? Hell Yeah!’ In just six words each Fellow gave a powerful and memorable insight into his or her work.

2. Know the ‘why’ behind the story

During a storytelling workshop pre-sented by Moth storytellers, attendees learned that a crucial—if not the most important—element of storytelling is defining the theme. What is your story about? Why is your story important?

What does it mean to you? The theme of the story is essentially the why be-hind the story. Why are you telling it and why does it matter to listeners? If you can answer these questions then you will be able to craft a powerful sto-ry based around the theme.

3. All relationships are fed by storytelling

Nothing sells like a good story. But more importantly, nothing builds a re-lationship like a good story. The com-bination of conviction and storytelling brings people together, fuels relation-ships, and changes perspectives. We each have the responsibility of telling our stories but just as importantly, letting others tell their stories. Some-thing special happens when someone who has never shared his or her story is suddenly presented with a micro-phone or a tape recorder.

Like Todd, we are all authors and have the unique responsibility of sharing our stories. The story of social change is being written right now—it is a reality show and it is up to each of us to be co-authors and contributors. What sto-ries have impacted you the most? And how are they influencing your path of changemaking today?

Storytelling is a powerful tool for

social change across all sectors. Not only

do stories cause us to empathize

and motivate us to act, they also help us understand the

important nuances of social issues

Photo courtesy: Ashoka Global

Pest Control, NaturallyBy ROMULUS WHITAKER

13 | FELLOWCONNECT JUNE 2013 Photo courtesy: www.newswise.com


I

Romulus Whitaker is an Ashoka fellow working to aid disadvantaged tribal groups to develop environmentally sustainable livelihoods from generally wild animals.

There are several additional value-added avenues for enhancing income for the Irulas by converting captured

rats into chicken and fish feed

Irula tribes, though present in several parts of the country, primarily reside in the Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu. These tribesmen are well known for their abilities to catch snakes and rodents.

In 1978, I, along with my colleagues, started the Irula Snake Catchers Coop-erative, which deploys the Irula tribal technology. Today, the cooperative supplies over 80 percent of the snake venom used to make life-saving an-tivenom serum in India.

However, Irula knowledge goes far be-yond the world of serpents.

Being big consumers of clean, tasty field rats that abound in our rice, wheat, corn and millet fields, the Iru-las have devised ingenious techniques of locating and captureing rats that can put cats to shame. A hunter-gatherer can’t waste precious time and energy digging up a vacant burrow. He has to make sure burrow is ‘live’ by using his almost uncanny skills at detecting small signs like tracks, dung, fresh dig-ging and even the presence of rat lice.

Crop destruction by rodents in India is a serious problem and grain losses due to rats may be as high as 20 percent. In 1984, with the support of Oxfam-In-dia, a pilot project was set up to test the cost effectiveness of rat control by Irulas.

The Irulas proved to be so good at rat catching that in 1985 the Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology gave the Irula Coopera-tive a grant of a million rupees to do a

pilot project of rodent control by direct capture. During the 20-month period, the Irulas captured over 400,000 rats, collected several tons of rodent-stored crops, saving an estimated 12 tonnes of grain and other crops. All this with-out using a drop of deadly pesticide! The average number of rats per acre at the start of the project was 7.8. This was reduced to 2.2 rats per acre at the end of the project. Unfortunately, the project was never taken to its logical conclusion: make rodent control in India a labour intensive operation that would employ thousands of skilled tribal people. Pesticide producers nev-er took into account how dangerous and ineffective rodenticides are.

In 1986, my friends and I started the Rodent and Termite Squad (R.A.T.S.). In a new direction to safe pest control, R.A.T.S. also applied Irula abilities to find and destroy queen termites. Again, no one took advantage of these pilot findings and R.A.T.S. ground to a halt. There are several additional value-added avenues for enhancing in-come for the Irulas by converting cap-tured rats into chicken and fish feed. The Murrel (Channa sp.) is a valuable edible fish perfect for farming and just happens to love rats.

So, the opportunity to apply Irula trib-al technology is waiting to happen. Rats and termites can be kept under control and tribal knowledge can be used and sustained. Moreover, the Irulas, one of India’s poorest minority groups, will have both a legitimate income and contribute to the country’s economy and food security. Anyone interested?

Thoughts

“ Naturo Farming and sorting out the problems of crop damage due to

rats with local knowledge are always good. But to scale it up depends

on the ownership of this knowledge by the users i.e. farmers themselves. Since it is labor intensive and a cost to the farmers, the rippling effect on the supply chain needs to be seen to ensure the adoption of this by the farmers.” - KC Mishra,

Ashoka fellow.

AshokaHub is an online platform ex-clusive to Ashoka Fellows, the Asho-ka team, and other select members of Ashoka’s network. We built the plat-form to help these network members connect, share strategic resources, and accelerate impact.

For Fellows, AshokaHub provides the most direct link to the global Asho-ka network, and to the valuable peo-ple, resources and ideas within. For Ashoka teams, AshokaHub is a space to convene and connect partners, Fel-lows and staff. For Ashoka Support Network members and other vetted partners, the space provides a window into how individual support and exper-tise best fit into an Everyone a Change-maker framework.

AshokaHub enables entrepreneurs in Ashoka’s global network to:

• Find the right connections • Contact one another• Exchange knowledge,

resources and opportunities• Share up-to-date information

More than one-third of Ashoka Fel-lows worldwide are already connected with the global network on Ashoka-Hub. Fellows have discussed innova-tions and sparked collaborations with one another, found volunteers and staff members for their organizations, and identified funding and promotion-al opportunities for their work. To join the growing community of Ashoka Fel-lows on AshokaHub today, visit hub.ashoka.org

Need Help? Have Questions? Send them to [email protected]

Website: hub.ashoka.org



What Investees Think

Keystone’s first report on the field of impact investing ‘What Investees Think’ presents robust feedback from social enterprises about the perfor-mance of their investors.

http://www.sankalpforum.com/re-sources/what-investees-think/

Seeds of Freedom (2012) Seeds of Freedom charts the story of seed from its roots at the heart of tra-ditional, diversity rich farming systems across the world, to being transformed into a powerful commodity, used to monopolise the global food system. Watch the video at: http://www.films-foraction.org/watch/seeds_of_free-dom_2012/

Creating Good Work: The World's Leading Social Entre-preneurs Show How to Build A Healthy Economy - Ron Schultz A rich guide book that recounts the stories of some of the most successful social entrepreneurial programs oper-ating today, with real life examples of how they overcame both physical and societal barriers to create a lasting im-pact on the world. To buy log on to: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0230372031

The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World - John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan

Renowned playwright George Bernard Shaw once said "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." By this defi-nition, some of today's entrepreneurs are decidedly unreasonable--and have even been dubbed crazy. Yet as John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan argue in The Power of Unreasonable People, our very future may hinge on their work. To buy log on to : http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Unreasonable-People-Entrepreneurs/dp/1422104060

RSA Animate - The Power of Outrospection Introspection is out, and outrospection is in. Philosopher and author Roman Krznaric explains how we can help drive social change by stepping outside our-selves. Watch the video at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG46IwVfSu8

fc | RECOMMENDS

Walking the Talk: The Journey of a Young Fellow

By TARIQUE MOHAMMAD QURESHI

More than anything else, it is an acknowl-edgement of our belief that change is possible. All one needs is the strength and preparedness to initiate and face the odds. The Ashoka Fellowship reaffirmed our belief that if honest efforts are made, nothing can stop us. We are firm believ-ers in the youth’s potential and capability to bring change. If provided with little handholding, motivation and some direc-tion, they can achieve just about anything.

Foremost value of the Ashoka Fellow-ship is the sharing of ideas. Being fel-low means access to some of the most amazing people with brilliant yet simple solutions to really complex issues. Meet-ing people who have been challenging the systems and structures to defend the rights of vulnerable citizens, especially the poor, has certainly added to our own perspective and understanding. Ashoka is the hub of inspirational stories of grit and determination. The strength that we gather from listening to the journeys of other fellows is huge.

Being an Ashoka fellow also enhances credibility of the work done, thus, making it relatively easier to reach out to people and seek support. Because of the posi-tive space that Ashoka has created for itself, it’s easier to collaborate with other

interventions in our area of work. Some of the senior fellows who have been around for long and helped build institu-tions of significance, are readily available to you because you belong to the same community. Koshish is surely learning a great deal from the experiences of other fellows and shall continue to do so. Due to the huge presence of Ashoka fellows in almost every field of work, there are enough opportunities to collaborate and strengethen each others efforts, thereby maximizing outcomes.

Koshish has evolved as an intervention model for students to learn about work-ing within systems. The strategies and methods developed by Koshish to ad-dress and overcome the constraints of being located inside custodial institutions demonstrate effective ways for positive non-threatening engagement.

Ten years from now, Koshish aims to be operating in a very different space. Koshish should not be required to do what we are doing today. By then we would have facilitated a policy frame-work, supported by an evolved structure for implementation of the policy, where people from the affected community would be leading the change and we shall be playing a facilitator’s role.

'For more stories from the Changemakers Series log on to http://india.ashoka.org'

Koshish is not the story of just an inter-vention, based on the principles of social work, but a journey: exploring the self, learning about values that bind two indi-viduals together, understanding human relations, and through all of this, explor-ing life. In this journey, we met some amazing souls. Absolutely beautiful and refreshing people who have ensured that our young team were never short of mo-tivation.

I take lot of pride in being an Ashoka fel-low. Ashoka, to me, is a beautiful family. Within this network, my understanding and commitment was not measured in the number of years in my age.

When we started, there was hardly any acceptance for our work. People, even close friends, thought we were unreason-able and playing with our lives. Justice had a different meaning for them. Even today, in many places, especially some of the government committees that we are part of, the initial reaction of some of senior members is: “how come he is here? Although they get their answers as soon as as we begin the discussion, what age means to people is communicated loudly.

Photo courtesy: Black Ticket Films

fellow connect - july 2013

Documents

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