Second IRMA
Let us celebrate our freedom and ability to migrate. Rooted migration. Let us work to reduce forced migration.
Most of us are rooted migrants. Some of us are pushed out, forced out, with survival at stake. Some of us are displaced. Development displacement. Some of us have to seek refuge in new locations. Some of us have to go to new, unknown, unhygienic, extremely risky livelihoods. Some of us do get pulled in. To tap opportunities, possibilities, find meaning and purpose. Blessed amongst us are able to take considered view forward.
Life, Freedom, Justice, Opportunity, Space is for everyone. Constitutional Right. ‘Most’ cannot crush one. Sensitivity-centric democracy.
We have committed to ourselves that we develop an India Plan, may be for the next 25 years. This comprehensive plan needs to be developed in 2021, investing in some 10,000 person-hours. Join us. Let us get going.
Farmers stand firm. Government is still not blinking. More farmers lose lives. More farmers come into the ‘protest’ locally. More people extend support. Surveys still say laws may do good for farmers. The supreme court wants to go with a dialogue approach. We have to remember farming is by farmers, agriculture is a state subject. State Governments have the apparatus to reach the farmers and farms. All the stakeholders need to be involved in evolving appropriate mechanisms. Value-chain level ‘exploitation’ (pricing, weighing, grading, moisture, fluctuations etc.) can still continue. In fragmented markets, mechanisms for right price discovery and benchmarking are required. Unequal partnerships may harm farmers more than we visualize today. Mega-aggregation may not work in favour of the small and marginal farmers. Collectivization, local value-addition are important and they need to be facilitated, strengthened and supported. Reforms, may not be these reforms, may not be in this form, are needed. Local Infrastructure is needed. All in the hands of the farmers.
Govt of AP and IRMA go for IRMA Campus 2 within the premises of AP Centre for Advanced Research on Livestock (APCARL) at Pulivendula, Kadapa, AP. To offer certificate courses from 2021 itself. Diploma courses from 2022. The foundation day is planned on 24 December. GoAP has budgeted Rs.84 Crore for this IRMA Campus infrastructure. IRMA mentors the IRMA-AP Campus. IRMA ecosystem would be taken there, I guess.
However, there is a need for investing in a core team for 2-3 years to get the ethos, philosophy, spirit, culture etc., apart from the initial but long-term faculty and associates for other aspects. Like IIMA initial team – Vikram Sarabhai, Kamla Chaudhary, Ravi Mathai et al; like IRMA initial team – Verghese Kurien himself, Kamla Chaudhary, Ravi Mathai, KSR Murthy, Sreekant Sambrani et al. There are more institutes in the space – XSRM, DMI, IIFM, IIRM, NIRD, KSRM…. We need to take lessons from them and integrate into this. One of the key ethos has been ‘Horizontal Control’. This will make a huge difference in IRMA-AP achieving ‘the excellence’ and usefulness a la IRMA.
The initial core team, the horizontal control management, the core faculty and the course structure, philosophy, culture, pedagogy – these make or mar the second campus. Eligibility and the admission processes have to be robust for taking the most suitable. It is important that the course has focus on local usefulness, enterprises, collectives, communitization. It has to discuss private, community, civil society and public institutions. It has to transcend management to leadership. It is possible to have livelihoods-poverty reduction-social development centricity. The course itself has be intense and rigorous, with practice-centric. 40-50% of the time has to be in the field – Fieldwork, Internship, Projects. An initial orientation, pre-course would help. Compulsory non-credit courses could be there. A mega-project – from design to grounding – could be included. Preparing for real life and job readiness should be driven home. Core Faculty need to be full-time resident. Most of them need to be Practitioner-Academics rather than just Academics. Faculty has to be learning facilitators rather than teachers. Case method may be the dominant way. Simulation Games and exercises. Hybrid-classwork with online-offline. 20% of 600 sessions/year have to be interactions with practitioners on ground, and eminent lifeworkers. 1:10 student-faculty ratio will be critical. Library, e-library are a must. Let us start small and placements will happen, if we have the quality from day zero.
It is possible to co-locate Global Centre for Agroecology Research and Learning with IRMA-AP.
Let us mentor more of them. North-east needs one. North-west needs one. Let us have rural management centres in IIMs, IITs, Central Universities.
We can only flow. As the flow dictates. Flowing itself is empowering. Flowing thoughts, learning, analyses, syntheses, articulations. Flowing actions, expectations. Flowing stories, experiences. Intense and not routine. Flowing 7L. Flowing local useful coexistence in N, becoming one with N. For 7L. The purpose, destination.
Join us in the world of yoga of liberation through flowing local useful coexistence lifework – pravaahayoga for 7L.
G Muralidhar