As a country, we need to protect poor and disadvantaged

Survey points to deep cuts in food consumption and increase in indebtedness in rural households due to Covid. People are pawning whatever assets they have, just to go by, as can be seen in the record increase in gold loans. This is often followed by auction of the gold pledged by the households, as they fail to repay the loan. "As a country, we need to extend more support to the poor and disadvantaged," says Prabhat Labh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Grameen Foundation India, in an exclusive interview with Bizz Buzz

Although the government is providing assistance to the people, the amount of support extended remains grossly inadequate. Millions of people have lost jobs, especially the informal sector workers and self-employed, and have been pushed back deep into poverty due to Covid

How do you see the rural developments going on in the country?

India has made tremendous progress in the last twenty-five years, since I have been working in the field of rural development. We have brought hundreds of millions of people above the poverty line, achieved near-universal enrollment in primary schools and made progress on health indicators, such as immunization, infant and maternal mortality. Households in rural areas now enjoy better access to roads, electricity, cooking gas, sanitation facilities and mobile networks.

However, this is a work in progress and a lot of ground remains to be covered. A lot of dropouts happen as children move to secondary and tertiary education, more amongst girls. Only two out of three children have a smartphone at home and even among these, as many as 26 per cent are not able to access the smartphone, as per the Annual Status of Education Report 2021 (ASER). As the schools around the country had to go virtual due to Covid-19, not having access to smartphones would have severely impacted learning outcomes. National Family Health Survey (NHFS-5) reported depressing numbers on health parameters such as stunting amongst children and anemia amongst women. My work takes me to rural areas where I see access to mobile data, banking and financial services, healthcare and quality of education, etc., as important challenges.

How do you see rural development on a global scenario?

Having managed development programs in over twenty countries across Asia and Africa, I can say that India is at the leading edge in many respects, such as mobilizing self-help groups, JAM trinity of Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar and Mobile, which can be leveraged to design programs with high efficiency and effective targeting. But there are areas in which we can learn from other countries. I see other countries paying more attention to data, evidence, and impact measurement, which can significantly improve program effectiveness.

Another good thing I saw when I lived in Canada was a culture of giving. No matter whether a person is rich or average middle class, everyone donates to support a cause. As a society, I saw these countries having greater empathy and support for others who are less fortunate. There is more trust and goodwill about the NGOs. Learning from them, India also needs to support its NGOs better. This applies not only to the government, but also to general public. Media needs to play a better role in sharing information about the work of NGOs.

What is the impact of various rural initiatives undertaken by government?

In my frequent travel to remote rural areas, I see a lot of changes. The villages are better connected by roads and have electricity. Children go to the Anganwadis centers to access services like growth monitoring, supplementary feeding, and immunization. I see a number of partially built houses that received assistance from the government schemes, but the assistance was inadequate to complete the house that they wanted to build. Households report receiving free ration provided by the government during the lockdown, and the Rs 500 sent to their PMJDY accounts. Farmers have received assistance under the PM Kisan scheme. So, clearly, our governance and digital infrastructure is delivering benefits to the people. Yet, the amount of support extended is grossly inadequate. Millions of people have lost jobs, especially the informal sector workers and self-employed, and have been pushed back deep into poverty. Surveys by a network of civil society organizations points to deep cuts in food consumption and increase in indebtedness in rural households due to Covid. People are pawning whatever assets they have, just to go by, as can be seen in the record increase in gold loans. This is often followed by auction of the gold pledged by the households, as they fail to repay the loan. As a country, we need to extend more support to the poor and disadvantaged.

What is your view on the initiatives taken by corporate houses under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives for the same?

To put all the corporates undertaking CSR in one bucket would be unfair, and inaccurate. Many corporates who are doing an exemplary job in CSR programs in sectors such as health, education, agricultural livelihoods, digital literacy etc, but there are other corporates who can do a better job of designing and supporting CSR initiatives.

I see scope for improvement in CSR programming in three aspects:

First, the speed of decision-making by corporates on their CSR commitments is pathetic. I find it surprising that a corporate house that is so agile in their regular business, can be so inefficient when it comes to decision making on their CSR portfolio.

The second challenge is the desire amongst the corporate houses to not only decide what kind of programs they would support but also to dictate, how to implement those programs. A corporate may be great at constructing roads, or providing financial services, or selling consumer goods. Problem starts when they start believing that they also know and must decide how best to implement a health or an education or an agriculture program. There is a need to let the CSR implementing organizations have greater say in program design and implementation.

The third challenge is the short-termism of the CSR donors, who want to support only those projects that can produce measurable results within one year. While one can build a school or dig a well or plant trees in a short time frame, if you really want to improve the education, health or environmental indicators, you need to address multiple challenges, which take a long time to accomplish. CSRs have some ground to cover in designing programs that can address complex challenges faced by our society.

Any comment on the farm bills that were withdrawn by the government?

Since these bills are already withdrawn, any comment on those will not have any practical utility.

I would therefore instead comment on the needs of smallholder farmers, with whom we do a lot of work. They need help to access capital, technologies and markets. Government is putting focus on organizing farmers into farmer producer organizations (FPOs). But these FPOs are severely under-capitalized. Investment is needed to build the capacity of the FPOs and smallholder farmers in connecting to markets, finance and technologies. We as Grameen Foundation are doing our bit in this direction, and would like to do more.

How is Grameen Foundation doing in India?

Grameen Foundation India has been operational in India for over 11 years. In these years we have directly impacted over 1.50 million people directly through our programs. Besides digital finance, we also expanded in the domains of agriculture, health and nutrition, and empowerment of women entrepreneurs. We distinguish ourselves by being at the forefront of innovation and designing models for sustainable impact. We have a near pan India presence, either directly or through our partners. The team at Grameen brings a deep understanding of the lives of low-income people. We combine this with our prowess in designing innovative programs that leverage digital technology. We are also known for our deep capacities in program evaluation, research and analytics. These capabilities put us at the forefront when it comes to designing innovative, cutting-edge programs that create impact at scale.

What are the initiatives taken by Grameen Foundation?

We undertake programs in digital financial inclusion, women's economic empowerment, agriculture and health and nutrition. We are also supporting the vulnerable communities and families of health workers impacted by Covid-19. Through our Grameen Mittra program, we have created self-employment for over 1,000 women entrepreneurs who bring multiple financial and non- financial products and services to the rural communities in the states of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Distinctive thing about Grameen is, its research, analytics and digital capabilities. We are undertaking action research on diverse topics, such as how to increase the viability and effectiveness of business correspondents to drive financial inclusion, effective methods to leverage digital platforms for agriculture extension, leveraging social media to address vaccine hesitancy, etc.