The Hindu Business Line : Changing lives

Though poverty reduction takes time, the pay-off in terms of cohesive maturity and understanding is great. People are coming together on a class and not caste or communal basis.

As an IIM-A graduate with 22 years' seniority, he could have been sitting as a top honcho in a corporate in India or overseas today, drawing a salary which ordinary people can only dream of. But after graduating from IIM he asked himself: Do I want to change other people's lives or my own? He chose the former option and today M.P. Vasimalai, Executive Director of Madurai-based DHAN (Development for Humane Action) Foundation, has touched the lives of thousands of poor women and farmers in different ways; reaching micro finance to the former and organising the latter to religiously protect their natural water sources such as tanks and ponds.

Vasimalai was born in 1956 in a village in Madurai district in a farming community. "My father was a farmer who never went to school, but those were times of agricultural prosperity. Now, in the same village, things are in bad shape." After studying in a Tamil medium village school, he graduated from a college in Tirunelveli district.

A PG degree in agriculture seemed a natural pursuit for a farmer's son, and after obtaining this from the TN Agriculture University in Madurai, he took on a government job where he couldn't last beyond six months as there was "no scope for tapping one's creative potential". Next, he joined the Agriculture University as a research associate in water management of crops. After two years, he applied for a bank officer's job as "that was the in-thing those days" and was selected for a post in Bank of India. This was in 1980. Around the same time, a friend suggested, "let us apply for IIM-Ahmedabad, which I did." Being brilliant in maths, and "as most of the questions were mostly math-related", he got admission. It was during these two years at the IIM-A, that "the actual transformation within me took place. IIM offers real education and brings in a different perspective or way of thinking. It was here that I did some self-introspection and asked deeper questions like who am I, what am I doing, and I decided not to get into the corporate sector, even though I went into IIM-A with this idea."

The salary those days for an IIM graduate was about Rs 6,000, but as he had made up his mind, he didn't attend any placement interviews. "Good salaries tempt you when there is pressure to make money, but I had none. . In any area, one needs space for creative work and to make a difference. I asked myself what would happen if I took the development route or the corporate route; in the former, in three years you could make a difference to at least 3,000 people's lives. Did I want to do that or make my own life different, was the question."

The answer was clear enough and he came across Vijay Mahajan who told him about the starting of an NGO called Pradan (Professional Assistance for Development Action) and asked whether he would be interested. From Pradan came DHAN and today when Vasimalai himself has to do the recruiting, the same question — on making a difference to thousands of lives or to your own — is asked to young professionals.

"Each year we take 40 new professionals from all streams. The culture of DHAN is non-hierarchal; we operate in 100 places and tell them, `You are a socially responsible person and you have your own space, so freak out'!" DHAN has reached micro finance to 2.1 lakh women in the southern States and helped them generate personal savings of a whopping Rs 45 crore. To somebody involved with people at the grassroots level, does he think the recent elections results were rural India's revenge on urban or the poor people's revenge on the rich?

His eyes lighting up, Vasimalai says, "I think it was a great result and a milestone verdict which spoke people's mind and showed they were not swayed by promises. Our people are very clever and they showed their shrewdness particularly in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Through their vote, they have put in place check points, telling politicians that even if they have no alternative, they couldn't be taken for granted. This is what any electorate is supposed to do. I think it was a dream verdict."

Do organisations like DHAN have a bearing on how people vote?

"We told them: Go and vote. Vote for whomever you want, but vote you must. In our Kalanjiams, we are trying to get 80 to 85 per cent voter turnout, because ultimately women's empowerment should be reflected in their voting pattern."

After 13 years of working with the disadvantaged classes, giving them not only hope but also confidence and empowerment, Vasimalai feels "great, because when you analyse people's power, the sky is the limit. The transformation that is happening is unbelievable and the village people have shown that if you go to them with a genuine and honest effort, they respond accordingly. Though poor, the way they stick to their values is heartening."

Vasimalai admits that poverty reduction is a hard nut to crack and takes a long time. "But at the grassroots level, the kind of development that is happening and the kind of leadership which has emerged is phenomenal. Though poverty reduction takes time, the kind of pay-off in terms of cohesive maturity and understanding is great. The conflicts are moving out. People are coming together on a class basis and not a caste or communal basis. That's a big payoff. We don't talk about it, but it is happening."

He is also enthused at the women's groups taking on social evils such as female foeticide, usurious lending, prohibition and even dowry. On issues like female foeticide, in infamous areas DHAN has intervened directly through local dais and given a small grant of Rs 2,000 to be deposited in an FD in the name of the girl child. This can bring some relief to the parents at the time of her marriage. DHAN also encourages the women's groups to take on alcohol addiction in their husbands and helps with loans for de-addiction programmes.

Vasimalai's agricultural background makes his analysis and dissection of farmers' problems that much sharper. He says that farmers in the canal command area (irrigated by big water bodies) are highly vulnerable in drought years. "The real issue is that farmers' produce is not getting a better price. Instead of granting subsidies, the price manipulation by the State needs to be avoided. Input prices are going up but the output prices are not commensurate with that. I believe the market itself has to respond and it should not be the Government but the farmers who should decide the price as happens with high value crops."

He agrees that the farming community is going through a crisis but is optimistic about the future and sees the landless becoming landed in a span of 10 to 20 years. In this phenomenon, family labour would play a critical part because without this component agriculture is an expensive proposition. "I have seen many backward class people who were landless agricultural workers owning the land. But this phenomenon is not being captured."

Pointing out the irony of high yielding seeds and high technology making farmers vulnerable, he says, "The diversity is gone from agriculture and this is not healthy. Recently, somebody pointed out that in the Andhra dry land belt the vulnerability is less because of the diversity of crops. And hence the suicide deaths are not much there. It is in high intensive irrigated areas where you go in for high input oriented crops... beta cotton has ruined so many families. But the real issue is input prices and the fact that the seeds are out of the hands of the farmers. In the olden days, we always kept our own seeds in our homes and those who didn't, were not respected. But now the market system is robbing that right of the farmer."

Vasimalai, who describes himself as spiritual rather than religious — "I believe in all religions" — has simple habits, is a vegetarian and has no regrets for shunning a corporate job. What is more remarkable is that he is happy with his choice and "not consumed by a feeling of any great sacrifice."

Would MBAs from the IIMs enter his world today?

"Well, today their salaries are in dollars, so it is that much more difficult. Earlier, at least some people used to come to this sector. Nowadays there is no chance." But an incurable optimist, he thinks things will change as the market begins to ask questions of social responsibility.

Picture by the author

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

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