The Hindu Business Line : Dignity personified

I ask for directions to her office in Central Mumbai. I receive an e-mail with a map neatly drawn out and a little note that describes Topiwalla Lane as the most hospitable street in the world. It accepts more cars and people than it can actually hold. I realise she has a way of saying things, as my car is gingerly navigated through a lane that might just manage to be at best a pedestrian plaza. The lady has a sense of humour. She needs one, dealing with a rather grave subject…old age.

I recall meeting Sheilu about ten years ago at H. R. College, where I was invited to judge a students’ contest. The subject matter was how one would increase the circulation of a magazine called Dignity Dialogue. This was Sheilu’s niche publishing venture that was targeted only at senior citizens. After that I was to hear and read about Sheilu over the years, and bump into her a couple of times. Today it is almost fashionable to utter politically-correct words such as ‘silver’ and ‘golden’ when referring to the aged. Ten years ago, it was a real problem that not many people had even recognised, leave alone attempted to tackle.

But then Sheilu’s story begins in distant Madurai where the young girl spent her impressionable years. She did her post-graduation in Chennai and fell in love with social work as she trained to be a qualified social worker. The love affair still burns with the same intensity today. The young Sheilu who really wanted to become a doctor (her parents would have nothing to do with her studying in a boys’ college) enjoyed learning how to help people. In fact, she says “helping” is the wrong word to use. “You must render service without making it a power relationship. Just engage in the act of service, and realise you are actually empowering, not helping,” says the articulate Sheilu, smiling.

Marriage brought her to Mumbai where she did her doctoral programme in Sociology from the Bombay University. That was the age of dynamic feminism and Marxism. Sheilu eagerly participated in the debate that questioned her status quo as a woman and as a member of a class. Those five years, she believes, developed her character, her thought processes and her analytical skills. Looking back she feels that social work and sociology are a wonderful combination to have. Dr Sheilu Sreenivasan worked with a leading publisher, picking up the important commercial nuances of the world of publishing. Craving creative expression and “space”, she joined the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) hoping to introduce the concept of a ‘University Press’ there. The academic council at TISS somehow felt that this activity would be outside the pale of real teaching, and shot it down. A frustrated Sheilu then decided to publish something herself, and Dignity Dialogue, a magazine, was born.

In three months, the magazine reached a circulation of 4,000 copies. It was also to spawn an entire slew of services all aimed at retaining and providing the one attribute elders cherish most … dignity.

The Dignity Foundation was formed in 1998 and this grew into the most comprehensive service and care provider for elders. The scope of its activities include a helpline, job counselling service, teaching programmes, a vigilance project, a network of protection for elders, a loneliness mitigation project, a dementia care service and even a senior citizens’ ID Card. Their most recent and ambitious project is Dignity Lifestyle, a sprawling complex spread over 25 acres near the hill station Matheran, which positions itself as a “hassle-free retirement township, not an old age home”. To set up this project, Sheilu personally went around visiting 128 old age homes, to understand what such a complex should not be.

I question her about the rather difficult job of fund-raising. “It is still a struggle”, she says, “but somehow, from somewhere, money comes. It is not enough to be a mere social worker. You have to market a cause. You have to brand it and be the brand ambassador yourself”. All the commercial learning and exposure to friends such as creativity consultant R. Sridhar of IdeaZrs is now showing. “India is not yet in a mode of the corporatised NGO,” she continues, “yet the NGO field is a huge career opportunity. Sure, the money is not great, but it provides meaning to life. You feel you are contributing to something tangible and the joy is immense.” Her advice to young people is that “the development sector needs development by managers from fine institutions such as the IITs and IIMs. All principles of management that are relevant to the corporate sector are equally relevant to the development sector. And the best part of it is you can see your contribution directly before your eyes. The best kind of instant gratification.”

The joy of making the sunset years of thousands of elders more meaningful and happy is evident in the radiant smile that always plays on Sheilu’s face. As they say, every dusk signals the onset of a new dawn.

(Ramesh Narayan is a communications consultant.)

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