How Should Secular Indians Organise?

A previous post in June 2010 exhorted secular minded Indians to organise. The communal minded already seem to have, under the umbrella of a communal minded politician. The secular minded, on the other hand, are most disorganised. They are happy to co-exist and work or socialize with anyone they like, irrespective of the community they belong to. 

In today’s climate, with the hardened attitude of the communal minded towards anyone who is different or anyone who, from their own community, is ambiguous about those differences, our laid back, easy going attitude simply isn't enough. 

How do Secular Indians Organise in a safe and uplifting environment? My answer is guaranteed to surprise. It is simple, do-able and very effective.

Here are a few key factors to a good organisation

Accountability is important. It engenders trust. Take our politicians. We generally are wary of them as we feel their accountability to their electorate is lacking. Here's a youtube video by Cass Wheeler and Ho Sun Yee on accountability I found especially useful.

Awareness: Whether through a blog, website, word of mouth, ads or fliers, letting people know we exist is important. It helps us meet other like minded people. 

My suggestion is, get involved with charities. How would getting involved with charities help us fight communalism - a problem exacerbated by racist politics?

Charities have both those characteristics - awareness and accountability. The members of any charitable organization will tell us how essential it is to put aside individual egos and work as a team for a cause. They will also tell us they

• are normally there to right a wrong; to help alleviate pain and injustice.
• are already organized into a formidable force that makes a difference.
• are often under resourced but know how to utilise whatever is at hand to make a difference.
• need all the help they can get. It doesn’t have to be monetary help. Morgan Hunt, in his article about the significance of volunteering time to non profit organizations agrees that donating your time is good for you; sometimes it is better than donating money.

And I cannot think of any other approach that lets us be altruistic as we simultaneously acquire the many vital skills of belonging to such an organisation.

This is but a start. This is what so many more of us than ever before, can do right now. 

In conclusion, the first step to making our communal minded politicians accountable is through getting organized ourselves. Let us give a small portion of our time (daily / weekly / monthly) and our trust to charitable organisations that already exist. We can help them even as they help us get to know and appreciate one another, irrespective of the community we belong to. 

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India Redefined (IR) a Long Term, Citizen's Action Plan

IR is a movement started by Ranjana Kanti to give our desire to do something for India a structure and a plan. IR believes we can be effective only if we are actively involved ourselves. That is the only way to hold our elected representatives accountable. Ranjana is right. We cannot leave governance to people who we cannot hold accountable. When we see the rule of law broken with impunity by those in power, when we face people who constantly fudge the facts and are not transparent, who take their cut, are corrupt, self serving to an amazing degree and arrogant, what should we do? To date we’ve simply grumbled, raved and ranted but eventually sighed and said, “Never Mind Yaar”. This waiting for our knight in shining armour, that one honest and honourable person who will right everything for us, hasn’t worked. As Amit, one of our IR members rightly points out, there comes a time when a tolerant and easy going people erupt.

But when things erupt ordinary people have no chance. People with their own agendas who are thirsting for someone’s blood come out of the woodwork to take advantage of the chaos. A better strategy is to unite. After all, whose voice is stronger? A billion lone individuals or a billion strong force?

So at the risk of sounding repetitive, our only hope is to get involved ourselves. There is so much Ranjana and IR have planned to give structure to our desire to do something. She has laid out simple initial steps – identify and do something about any three small, very small, things that ail your own locality. Then inform IR about what you did, what challenges you faced and how (or if) you overcame those challenges. I know she has more planned. But first, she wants to foster our spirit of volunteering and discovering for ourselves we can be effective.

It is obviously a long term plan. Some think it’s a pipe dream. A pipe dream to want ordinary Indians to live in a safe, clean and secure environment, to want to lift the appalling standards of living, health and education of poor Indians, to want to live in harmony with other cultures even while we are proud of our own? Let them call it what they will, I hope we never forget what we are all trying to achieve. I hope IR’s existing members, who are in their thousands, don’t lose faith.

So many of us have joined the movement because we are fed up of the indifference of some politicians and we are clamouring for change. But it won’t happen overnight. The problems are huge.

I know Ranjana is working on a document to outline some of the ideas she has. In the mean time, if you have any ideas, write and tell ALL of us on our Facebook forum, not just Ranjana privately. (I know she is inundated with phone calls, emails and Facebook messages. So much so that she spends most of her time answering those. Sorry Ranjana, the price of fame!) Our Facebook forum is either "Ranjana Kanti" or "India Redefined". Please join only one and not both forums. If your name appears twice, it denies one more person the chance to join. Everyone in India or abroad is welcome to join.

Also, your thoughtful comments on others’ posts are what we need to make our forum vibrant, alive and active. As Aparajita, another IR member, commented, “talking & talking of problems is better than shrugging them off in indifference.” True Aparajita. It is certainly a step in the right direction.

Once we identify those problems, ‘solutions’ is what we all in IR want to, and will, see.

To our continued success.



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How to Keep Young Volunteers Motivated

This post is about a beautiful website I came across about youth and volunteering. 

"Youth Action Network" has NINE PRINCIPLES that keep youth who volunteer, motivated. 

The principles are

1. Youth Participation. Young people are in the driving seat; they decide what happens.
2. Benefitting Others: Young people don’t just do it for themselves, others benefit too!
a. If you can demonstrate to funders a benefit to others as a result of your volunteering programme you’re more likely to receive further funding.
b. If you can demonstrate to volunteers the difference they have made they will feel good about themselves and therefore more likely to continue volunteering.
3. Fun and Rewarding: No one wants to do something that’s boring; it has to be fun and give a sense of achievement.
4. Flexibility: It should be when, where and how young people want it.
5. Support: Young people aren’t just ‘left to it’; they’re supported in their aspirations and efforts.
6. Say Thank you: Young people’s efforts should be celebrated.
7. Progression and Leadership: Young people want to develop, they enjoy a challenge, and this should be built in!
8. Diverse and Inclusive Any young person should be able to participate in youth action; think creatively to break down those barriers.
9. Skills and personal development Youth action is a journey with learning and education an important part of the experience.

If this has piqued your curiosity, here’s the link to the website. There's tons of stuff there to help any movement ORGANISE, THEN MOBILISE: http://www.youthactionnetwork.org.uk/yn/home

Notes:
1. If you'd like to know a great and uplifting way to battle corrupt politicians who foment trouble between communities, click on the link: http://www.nevermindyaar.com/secular-indians-organise-safely/. The article discusses a SAFE environment in which to come up with a long term action plan; to learn how best to organise, then mobilise.

[This article, "Secular Indians, Organise Safely" was written way before "India Against Corruption" lit up the Indian radar screen.]

2. To my mind the most effective platform to fight corruption in Indian politicians has to have been "India Against Corruption". Without a doubt it has given hope to all ordinary Indians that they might see an end to the mind boggling level of corruption in politicians within months. The leaders of the movement have taken the initiative to explain why politicians get away with such a degree of looting tax payer funds and how their corruption seeps down into everything India attempts to do. The core team of IAC is Anna Hazare and the drafters of the Jan Lokpal Bill (a bill with teeth to fight corruption in  politicians). One of the leaders, Arvind Kejriwal, is a motivational speaker. Here's a link to one of his debates: http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/ndtv-special-ndtv-24x7/debating-the-jan-lokpal-bill/215379
The link to IAC: http://www.indiaagainstcorruption.org

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