India Final Reflection

Note - This was not written to be a blog post. This was written as the final paper that I was required to turn in to get my grade for the trip. It assumes the reader was on the trip, so I don't give details about exactly what organizations and companies mentioned do. I made the decision to post this here after it was written and turned in. Enjoy! 

           When I first applied for this exploration seminar to India, I really wasn’t sure what to expect out of it. I had a few friends who had gone on various study abroad trips, but none quite like this – most of them were taking classes or working while abroad, rather than traveling and meeting with companies and organizations. I also didn’t really know much about India as a country. I knew the women were both wildly successful on one end of the spectrum and extraordinarily impoverished on the other but I didn’t quite know what that looked like in reality, I knew India’s economic development had taken off over the last two or three decades but I didn’t know why, and I was aware of microfinance taking off as a way to help women reach economic equity, but I didn’t have a great grasp of why or how it worked. I did, however, know that I wanted to go someplace I’ve never been before, and see aspects of a country that I probably will never get to see in any other context. I knew I wanted to be challenged and inspired, and that’s exactly what happened.

            Going into the trip, I thought that microfinance would be the part of the trip I would be most interested in. I had read a few articles about microfinance, and really wanted to learn more about it and how it has helped women in India. Our first week in Mumbai, however, I figured out my passions lie elsewhere – in education. On day one when we met with Poorvi Shah and Shaheen Mistri at Akanksha, I was inspired by what they had created. They were providing real, valuable education opportunity for children who wouldn’t otherwise have a quality education, and that was making all the difference in the lives of these kids. Throughout the trip it was a common theme – we met with a very wide range of leaders in a variety of sectors, and the common thread among them all seemed to have had access to quality education in some capacity. By the time we left India, I was thoroughly convinced that change has to start with education and schools. By educating the youngest citizens of India, Akanksha is setting them up for success throughout the rest of their lives. Listening to Shweta talk about how her experience in Akanksha’s program has allowed her to pursue her accounting certificate as well as inspired her sister to do even better on her exams than she had showed me that these programs are absolutely essential to closing the massive economic gap that exists in India. Every child that is educated properly affects the population exponentially due to subsequent generations also being set up for success, and that’s really what lasting impact is about.

            Later that week, Pam and I had the opportunity to go to a TEDx event about transforming education. While those talks were not entirely focused on India, they were extraordinary nonetheless. Here I was able to get a more theoretical basis for educational transformation, as well as learn a lot more about what the people who are doing the work on education are actually doing, whether it’s in India, the United States, Brazil, or elsewhere. I kept a log of my favorite quotes from the various speakers’ talks that night, and one that stands out to me is something that Anand Shah, CEO of Sarvajal, a social enterprise focused on increasing access to drinking water, said. He said that the work that he does and that we all do is a “collaborative effort of moving towards a future we can’t explain but that we will co-create.” At first, I didn’t really think that much about his words – I jotted them down to look back at later, and if you had asked me right afterwards what my favorite part of TEDx was, this line would probably not have come to mind.

By the end of the trip, however, I saw the power and truth of Anand’s words. On one of our last days in India, we were all asked to connect our final visit with Grameen Financial Services to one other visit we had made over the previous few weeks. When I got up to say my piece, I talked about how Grameen is similar to SEWA, and many other visits we had in India, in that it’s all about working together and helping each other. I don’t remember word-for-word what I said at the time, but I basically made the point that in order for us to be successful as a group, community, country, or world, we have to help each other out, and not be greedy and selfish. I feel like in the United States we very much have a culture of individualism – everyone gets what they deserve and if they are not successful it’s because they didn’t work hard enough. While this is not a sentiment I have aligned myself with for quite some time now, India showed me what the opposite of that can look like: how beautiful and successful and powerful movements can be when they are focused on common ground and making sure everyone is represented and appreciated. We saw this with the women of SEWA, who really embraced the collective spirit and making sure everyone was taken care of. We saw it again with Grameen, where the women made sure everyone in the group was able to pay back their loans, and if they couldn’t they were still taken care of until they could. We saw this with Reality Tours, who were using people’s interest in the lives of people they don’t know to better the situations of those living in the slums. We also saw it at the corporations we visited – women had plenty of time and care for maternity leave, so they weren’t left behind because they wanted a family and a career. This theme came up again and again throughout our trip, and by the end when I looked back on the quotes I had written down that first week at TEDx, I saw how true Anand’s line really was. We have no idea what the future is going to look like – not in India, not in America, and not globally, but if we can put aside our differences and work together and learn to help each other despite our own self-interests, the future will be a true collaborative effort.

Before and throughout the trip we were constantly being asked, “what makes a leader?” The first day of our classroom days that we were asked this, I had no idea what to say. I could list a few characteristics that make a good leader, but none of those seemed absolutely necessary to leadership. I still haven’t really come to any definite conclusion on what it really means (and takes) to be a leader, but I did realize that “leader” encompasses a very wide variety of people. There is no real way to strictly define what a leader is in my opinion, since there are so many ways to be a leader. I think the only way to really characterize leaders that encompasses all the different forms that they can take is by saying that it is someone who makes a positive impact on another person. Shweta, for example, was a leader to her sister because she was able to inspire her sister to also seek an education. On the other hand, however, Poorvi was a leader to Shweta because she was able to provide the skills and training that Shweta needed to pursue her own education. Some people may be a leader to one person or group, but not to another. Srilata, for instance, is seen as a great leader to those who share her ideals and those who she has helped through her work, but to others she’s seen much less favorably. In India I definitely learned that leadership doesn’t have to always to be loud and at the front of the room taking charge – it can be anyone who makes a difference in someone else’s life over their own personal gain.

I have long been a fan of Mahatma Gandhi. Almost two years ago I got the words “be the change” tattooed onto my ribcage as a reminder to always be working for the world I want to see. I am also a huge believer in change through non-violence. Because of all this, I was very excited to go to Gandhi’s ashram. I took about 30 pictures that day, all of Gandhi’s words. For the last few weeks, my computer background has been one of the pictures I took at the ashram. It reads,

“I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test: Recall the face of the poorest and weakest man you have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to Swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and yourself melting away.”

To me this epitomizes my mindset since the trip and what really makes a leader. A leader needs to take into account those that they are leading. I think the most important part of this quote is the question “Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny?” In thinking about what was the most effective aid work that we saw in India, it seems to me that the most inspirational stories were those that empowered those who were oppressed. In SEWA, the women were helping themselves, not simply being given lanterns or cookers. In all of the various educational pursuits we saw, the children were empowered to seek a better life through increased knowledge, and as such, increased job capacity. I think that in the United States we (myself included) often think of aid work in the context of what can We do for Them, when in reality, lasting change should be thought of as what can we help each other achieve. Gandhi’s quote summed this up for me really well, and since that realization I have become more critical of how non-profit organizations and NGOs function, particularly ones run by people who are not part of the group people they are attempting to help.

When I first embarked on this journey, I wanted to be inspired. I was at a point in my life where suddenly I wasn’t really sure what my future looked like. I realized I no longer wanted to go directly into graduate school, if at all. A week before we left, I filled out a Teach For America application thinking of it as a long shot, but worth a try. By the time we got back however, Teach For America had become pretty much all I could see myself doing next year. Having seen the difference one teacher or one organization can make on the life of a child, I knew that’s what I wanted to be doing. The last month since we’ve been back, my thoughts have been consumed with how badly I want the opportunity to be the person to make that difference. I have become entirely convinced that education isn’t just where change has to start in countries like India, who are just finding themselves to global stage, but also in the United States where we still have a huge income and education gap. It may not be to the extent if India’s, but it’s there, and it’s a problem. Since I’m graduating in June, people keep asking me what my plans are. Of course, my first choice is Teach For America, and hopefully in two weeks I’ll be able to tell people that is where I’m headed, but I know I need a contingency plan. I haven’t quite worked that out yet, but I’m seriously considering going back to India and finding a job or internship in education there. I don’t know where I’ll end up, but what I learned in India will definitely impact my future. I left for India wanting to learn more about the country and culture I was visiting, but really I ended up learning the most about myself, my values, and where my passion lies.