Comments
In a world where corporate expansion stands in direct conflict with the communities that live in the area and state after state reverberates with protests from citizens when an industry digs its heels in their land, here is a heartening tale of how corporate progress and community development can go hand-in-hand with a win-win for both.This is a tale of how the TVS Motor Company enhanced the lives of the community around the vicinity of its factories, and beyond, along with its own reputation and profits.
A Silent Revolution: The Journey of the Srinivasan Services Trust (SST) provides just this story — of how village life got transformed through a model that involved TVS and members of the community and made them partners in change. All of this achieved through gentle nudging, democratic decision making and mutual respect.
The story springs from the core of ‘sustainable development’ in its original form — of making communities self-reliant, of striving towards an inclusive society that anchors itself on providing each and every member the essentials of a meaningful life — health, education, gender equity and livelihood options that provide for everybody’s need, not greed. It also meant addressing caste discrimination and eliminating its ugly practices.
Blips and achievements
While recounting the story that began 25 years ago, the author Snigdha Parupudi has explored every aspect including the blips and achievements and put it in its context painstakingly. It is a story that needed to be told and it is a story that needs to be read.
In 1996 when the Chairperson of TVS Motor Company, Venu Srinivasan, began the Srinivasan Services Trust in Hosur (Tamil Nadu) “to honour his father’s (TS Srinivasan) vision” and “realise his dream of equitable, participatory and sustainable development” he did not envisage that it would grow to embrace 5,000 villages in five different states. He also did not imagine that it would impact three million people at last count.
What is most absorbing about SST’s journey is how the model was developed and polished over several years. How setbacks and successes were taken as learning lessons and took community changes to a newer and richer dimension. Let’s see how it happened…
It all began from the tiny village of Padavedu in the Tiruvannamalai district, a stone’s throw from the city of Vellore. Venu Srinivasan visited the place over two decades ago with the idea to renovate some ancient, abandoned temples. While he did this, he witnessed how the people of the region lived in poverty with no amenities — no schools, no drains, open defecation, no health facilities, children running around with little clothing and mostly out of school. There were just two bicycles in the community that were put into action in case of an emergency or mishap. Srinivasan decided to form the SST here wanting to do something for the people. When he established a small office at the back of one of the renovated temples to address the needs of two villages, he had no idea it could grow and be a catalyst to transform several thousand villages.
Whirlpool effect
For the book Parupudi speaks to a large number of villagers, SST staff members, women who became members of the self-help groups that were formed, and other stake holders. To hook the reader, she presents the narrative through key milestones that created the whirlpool effect and gave the project its participatory dimension.
For instance, she relates an incident from 2005 that changed the course of the project when Ashoke Joshi was at the helm of SST. One day he found a group of workers waiting hours to meet the SST team. Their intention was to inform the team that the tap it had installed in the school some months ago needed to be repaired. This got Joshi thinking about the model they were pursuing, and that this was an unsustainable charity-based model that needed to be discarded. The tap had been installed for the benefit of the villagers, but they did not consider it something that was theirs and could be proactively repaired by them.
From then on SST started to do things differently, whether it was cleaning a water body, setting up a community asset or organising women to pursue meaningful livelihoods. The model turned participatory where the community contributed in terms of a fraction of the funds or with their time to transform whatever improvement they wanted in their village. While TVS would provide the major funds, a contribution from the villagers and a commitment to maintain the asset had to come from the villagers. It was a simple dictum —without the wholehearted contribution of the community, no work would be undertaken. This move brought with it pride in the work done, involvement in the project, a desire to sustain the change and most of all empowered the community to bring upon its own change.
So, from a dismal state of affairs, community after community started looking at issues such as clean running water, electricity, sewage lines, schools for the children, anganwadis for toddlers, healthcare, toilets for everyone, even paved roads where there was none. The panchayats and women’s self-help groups were involved at every stage. No longer would the community wait for the government to bring these amenities to their doorstep, instead with the help of the SST team they would bring about the change that they desire and even access government schemes effectively.
Precision work
Though SST is a social service arm of the TVS group, it works with the same precision as the company and has a well-oiled machinery. Apart from a chairperson heading it, each site office comes under a field director who is always a retired senior government official. Under his or her supervision come community development officers, site engineers and agronomists who oversee infrastructure projects and agricultural development. The SST team even wears a uniform and the fact that they live amongst the community gives them a close relationship with the community. SST also has a good rapport with the police and the government administration, which aids them in the work that is undertaken.
The author’s description of a typical day across the communities where SST executes its work is worthy of replication: “Dawn is breaking. The sky slowly begins to brighten… In Padavedu, Annalakshmi is on her way to see if the milk society is running as it should. As the sun rises over Thirukurungudi, the sound of hundreds of cattle softly lowing fills the air, as a mega veterinary camp gets under way. In Hosur, women begin preparing thousands of rotis for the TVS factory. In Trichy, under the hot mid-day sun, Aruna is getting ready to supervise the distribution of fodder kits, while in Venkatagiri, Gopal is listening to a weaver community’s plans for the upcoming festive season. As the afternoon sun gently fades, a tailoring group in Mysore slowly disperses, its members lingering to compare each other’s handiwork. And in Navathirupathi, after the sun has gone down, an adult literacy class springs to life in the courtyard of the local temple.”
The above succinctly puts into perspective the role SST has played in the lives of thousands of villagers for the past 25 years. Right now, SST teams are steeped in emergency Covid-19 relief efforts. The future is even more hopeful. Venu Srinivasan has dedicated the book to his father, whose “resonating vision” was the reason to start SST in the first place. It is a must read not only for those in the development sector, but all those corporate entities who still need to learn how building a business need not be detrimental to the lives of people who live in its vicinity.
(The reviewer is a senior journalist)
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.