The following blog was published in Results for All. You could find it here: http://blog.results4all.org/ “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” The underlying theme of this popular adage by Peter Drucker has found much resonance in today’s rapidly changing, if not always evolving, world. Be it collecting information about immigrants to ‘manage’ their […]
I walked into my new office full of excitement. It was my first day of work with a senior member of parliament. To give you a little background, I am working with Dinesh Trivedi, Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) from the All India Trinamool Congress party, representing Barrackpore, West Bengal. He is a highly respected parliamentarian who has held several […]
“A right delayed is right denied” Martin Luther King Jr. talks about this adage in a letter from Birmingham City Jail dated April 1961. He mentioned this line in a legal context but it’s connotation is applicable across sectors around the world. When one were to look at India, a large section of the population […]
Over the last four months, the Swaniti team has been working tirelessly with the community in the Pindari glacier valley in Uttarakhand on improving the access to government schemes and services. The journey over these months has been backbreaking at times with the unforgiving terrain and unpredictable weather playing havoc with our plans. So where […]
The hall resonates with the voice of a man draped in the traditional white kurta. Wielding a microphone, he has no intention of indulging in a verbal assault. His meticulous preparation is complemented by his oratorical skills as he dissects the question on education posed by his co-participant while mooting practicable solutions, in a calm […]
Governance in a democracy is a tight-rope walk. Governments burdened by the weight of the masses’ expectations, strive to stay upright, and amble ahead. Yet, it is the burden of these aspirations which a populace thrusts onto its representatives, that forms a delicate balancing rod, the absence of which would mean that the Government though […]
In the year 2001, the first Sikkim Human Development Report expressed concern over the prevalence of alcohol abuse in the state. Subsequently, in 2010 a statewide health campaign by the Government of Sikkim reaffirmed the concerns. In the wake of increasing incidence of substance abuse (Alcohol, Drugs, Cigarette, and Tobacco) in the youth; the Government […]
Nestled safely some 7000 feet above sea level in the Pindar valley, is the pristine village of Khati. One legend has it that the residents of Khati are the direct descendants of those who had sheltered the keepers of good governance in Mahabharat, the Pandavas, during their exile. The Pandavas might have reached Khati a […]
Image above is of Kalika’s social map ‘What has anyone done till date? What will you do now? All that you do is ask us each year and then leave us to our fate’, cried the 65 year old Kumar as I sought his help during the Social Mapping Exercise in Kalika, the chosen Adarsh […]
Strolling through the newly built toilets of the primary school in Kahatul, I entered the ATM of the village and felt content that I did a decent job. The immaculately clean village was testimony to all the hard work Swaniti had put in over the last one year to ensure Kahatul is called an Adarsh […]