Being a Lifeworker
Corona makes leaders think about the future: Capabilities need to be augmented; and the best way to do is reskilling. Other ways may be external hiring, redeploying people, and hiring contract workers. It is also time to invest in learning in their own ways in a big way. Areas of learning include leadership, resilience and adaptability. Time needs to be spent in visioning-planning in general and for planning for capability augmentation in particular.
306-232. Trump concedes defeat. Legal battles are still on. Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Poll campaign is on. Polls on 1 December.
If we are not evolving from incidents, interactions, reactions, we are not in experience. Mere watching and observations may not give us experience. Thoughts, words and actions give us the experience, to keep making decisions, most often ‘right’. Hours of struggle take us to make a meaningful ‘success’. 10,000 hours! Action, reflection, plan – as a daily habit. This accrues as experience that takes us through inner awareness, awakening, lasting happiness.
Ahimsa. Can we be non-violent? Can we seek peace for all of us, all life? We need to stitch together partial truths towards whole truth, the elephant. Once we accept this, we need to sit and discuss openly. As we appreciate larger truth, we become less violent. This includes justice, less hate, more love to all, more care, life dignity to all, non-injury (physical, mental, emotional), being with nature. May not include self-defence. In any case, force is the last resort. Protests, Persuasion, non-cooperation, multitude of deliberate non-violent actions have to be exhausted before the last resort.
Therefore, can we not work to reduce gender-violence, violence against women? 1 in 3 too huge a proportion, to be ignored. Across the stages of life-cycle – pre-birth, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, elderly. Women have to fight. Various ways and forms of violence. In the marriage or outside. Includes trafficking. Includes force by state, genocides, wars. Men have to join the women in the fight.
These are the areas we fail mostly. You feel stupid. Inadequate. Your learning and formal training is inadequate. They make us go to fundamentals – Who am I? Why am I here? What is life? What is Universe? How can we be so selfish, so helpless, so inadequate? So less useful? Yet, we need to emerge out of these fundamental questions and get into actions. I am sure, our actions are, will be relevant.
I felt humbled to introduce my evolution as a Development Practitioner, Lifeworker in Development Practice. In Visionary Gurukul Alumni link. A group of alumni of various Gurukulams (schools and junior colleges) in Telugu states. Kanneganti Rama Rao in the lead. It reminded the efforts earlier – Sagurwa, a group of alumni, earlier and existing associates/teachers of Gurukulams with Shri Marri Srinivasareddy as Chair. Humble effort remained at the budding level. With Sir’s death, Sagurwa remained inactive. May be Sagurwa efforts flow into VGA itself. Also, SAGA initiated Pragna Gurukulam at Siddipet. Sarvail Alumni team taken charge and is going on. Alumni Associations of individual Gurukulams are also going strong in their own ways for establishing alumni’s identity-solidarity, support to students and gururukulam, and paying back. These include Sarvail, Tadikonda, Kodigenahalli associations, APRJC Sagar Pariwar.
23 November, Sarvail enters 50th year of its founding. By PV Narasimha Rao. Sarvail is the first Gurukulam of Teulgu States. Tadikonda, Kodigenahalli followed. Sagar subsequently in 3 years or so. I happened to be alumnus from Sarvail and Sagar. Call letter to write entrance came in and went to dustbin, and my headmaster discovered and passed it to my family, I could write the entrance, did well, and joined Sarvail. Sarvail ensured National Talent Search Scholarship and Mathematical Olympiad. Some stroke of luck, partly to do with NTS, Mathematical Olympiad. I got invited to APRJC to join late. From APRJC, to NIT (REC) Warangal. As a student doing well academically, and extraversion, got into dilemmas of life, influenced by Gurukulams and the ecosystem at NITW. I had to buy more than a year to explore and figure out. See around. Talk to various practitioners. Chose Development among Development, Journalism and Services. Chose IRMA vs Tata Institute. Given my analytical orientation. IRMA and immediately following work with Dr Kurien, Dairy Board, Collectives, Market Intervention Operation in Oils-Oilseeds, Brains-Trust, Bharat Darshan eating peanuts and digital mapping have firmly put me in Development.
The work with tribal communities, 1000 nights in the field, SR Sankaran, Kovel Foundation of the tribal NTFP collectors, Commons, Participation with Robert Chambers, and Payback at Naandi confirmed as a Development lifeworker. Akshara emerged. ‘livelihoods’ emerged. Yoga’kshemam’ started flowing out. Integrated TRUE Livelihoods Framework has been articulated. LEAPs, Value-chains, Interventions for poor-vulnerable-marginalized have been demonstrated and templated. Being referred as Livelihoods People. Piloted/Supported Gurukulam, Sakthi, Kshetra, Professionals’ Collective, and other 10+ Livelihoods Support Organizations. Became Social Impacts’s Portfolio Social Entrepreneur. Leader. Scaling up applying leadership-management concepts, tools, skills, technology to Development-Livelihoods has been an important aspect of work.
It appears, in hindsight, I had been preparing for a task of consequence, to work with women, self-help, livelihoods in Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (Velugu, Indira Kranti Patham in combined AP). As a co-lead in 2000. 15 million women, with 25+ layers of work. Took to more states, West Bengal, TN, Bihar, so on to 10+ states. Kerala’s Kudumbashree is happening in parallel. By 2009/10, India is ready to go national. National Rural Livelihoods Mission came in 2011. Contributed its Framework for Implementation, a live dynamic document, to service 100 million rural poor, with Rs.3000 Billion over 20 years. After the framework, UN put me in NRLM as its co-lead of core NRLM and lead its capacity building. NRLM as of now organized 70 million. Meanwhile, National Urban Livelihoods Mission came in in the same lines as NRLM. Together they organized 100 million women into groups and their federal entities. The communitized architecture includes about 30,000 professionals, 100.000+ community resource persons, 5+ million animators – community cadres, leaders – with competence, passion, accountability.
National Mission for Elders is in consideration at Government and Civil Society circles. Association with Civil Society and Collectives of/for PVM runs deeper over many years now.
Mentoring work includes Visioning, Planning, Leadership Support, Systems support, Communitization support to 10+ large programmes, 100+ organizations, enterprises, 10000+ Professionals, 100,000+ Resource Persons at various levels, in various themes. Experimented with 3-month to 2-year Programmes in Livelihoods Management. Practitioner-academic work includes mentoring 7+ institutes/University-centres, and facilitating learning to 1000+ students long-term.
For the last four years, the focus is on Natural Farming – Global Movements at Local levels, starting in AP. Inching towards 150M Farm and Farmworker Families nationally. And outside. In parallel, mentoring LPRD-PVM HR and Organizations continues. Moving in the direction of N-living, leading, time freedom.
Development Sector has huge scope, being the largest employer. Variety of forms, methods, practices, in Government and outside, Missions, Programs, Projects, Community Collectives, Support Organizations, Networks, CSRs, Donors, Movements, Social Enterprises etc., are part of it. May include: Business, Politics too. Education, Health, Livelihoods, Poverty-Vulnerability, Climate etc. Participation, Inclusion, Integration, Collectivization, Communitization form part of the core concepts. Maslow is modified here. Key principles include: Elephant; 7 Fish; FFF; Purpose; Social Animals; First – Existing, KST, Least Cost, Local. Rights are part of it. Care Rights.
Sector is transcending: Livelihoods to Living-Life; Management to Leadership; Employment to Self-emp-enterprises, Identity Freedom, N Living-Farming, Landscapes, GNH, Investments (rather than extraction), Work Hybrid, Portfolio. Meta Local Usefulness Together, in sync with Nature. Trusteeship for NextGen. Public Life, Accountability. Bird-worm views. Hare-Tortoise teams.
Development work is in our DNA of all of us. Hope, Faith, Promise, Love are our fundamental values. Our mothers have. Our teachers have. Our friends have.
Development work could be a destination. Longer innings. Can we give at least 10,000 hours? Can we give at least one-part of three-part 1000 moons? Retiring early and coming into this work can be more fulfilling, can give more happiness. In a variety of ways. Modes. Tenures. Our expertise, experience can help. We become more open, transparent, and ‘pure’. Do not forget to be fit and have stamina. Go for immersion, internship. Be ready for life of anti-status quo, like a mother; like a teacher. Licenses (from reputed) help – institute, internship with a senior, fellowship in an organization.
Please join the movement for local useful coexistence, with portfolio of works and freedom. Live simple LIFE. Spend time with various hues of Nature, Life, People. Be the leader, giving 10,000+ hours.
Basic human need is happiness and it is possible through knowledge, consciousness and awakening and actions resulting from these. All existence is coexistence in reality. Local useful coexistence. This has to be lived. Non-life, alife, life – there is evolution (at atom level). There is development, ‘growth’ (at cell level) within life. There is a progression in awakening. Then one reaches this state of awakening – human consciousness and live with it – through experience, thoughts, behaviour and work. This is sukh, shanti, santosh, aanand, in four levels of living at individual, family, society, nature levels. No extraction. No exploitation. The existing order is in harmony. If that is disturbed, it would get that set right in due course, with a new equilibrium, following definite natural life laws and directions. We experience them.
Since we do not understand ourselves, we do not understand others. We invest in ourselves to become and be human. Coexisting human. There is order in other life. We are not in the order. We ourselves are not in the order. There is no order within each one of us. These order(s) need to be restored. Coexistence is the way. This comes about by understanding, and resultant thoughts, words and actions. We internalize within – thoughts, words, behaviour, emotion, work, realization, resulting in comfort. We invest in relationships, resulting in peace. We trust in the society, resulting in happiness. We coexist in sync with nature, to get aanand. We become human and live our innate values: steadfastness, courage, generosity, kindness, grace, compassion, love, truth, justice, order in living. There are several shades of work by the soul, mind, intellect, heart, senses, et al – Atma itself, surrounded by buddhi, by chitta, by vritti, by mind.
If we understand ourselves, we start adhering to life laws that include knowledge, love, kindness, simplicity, righteousness. Usefulness and coexistence locally.
Let us pause, meditate, reflect as a habit. Let us be local, be useful, coexist, in N, with N. For 7L.
Join us in the world of yoga of lifework living, flowing, leading local useful coexistence – saha-abhyaasayoga for 7L.
G Muralidhar