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Thotshots 2: Baleshwar, Odisha

1/2/2022

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What do you do when floods destroy your crops year after year? Well, in Baleshwar (or Balasore), they converted it to an opportunity and took to fish farming. 

Last time I shared my thotshots from Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Now, far from the sand and the camels, I was in Odisha to cover the fishery development project of Nalanda Foundation.

At a place where people didn't just eat but practically lived fish, as a vegetarian, I was probably out of my depth. Yet, the locals were very happy to share their stories.

So, here is the second edition of Thotshots (personal thoughts, random shots) from Baleshwar, Odisha. 
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FROM ADVERSITY … Frequent floods, tracts of lands submerged for most of the year, crops that don’t get a chance to thrive, resigned farmers who let fish grow in the water for an occasional meal, livelihood a daily challenge …
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... TO OPPORTUNITY: Turning the wet conditions into an advantage, scientific fish farming in specially-built ponds, bonus income from the vegetables and fruits thriving on the fertile banks. An early adapter is seen on on his mandatory inspection of the pond.
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For the fish farmers here, the yield does not just provide food for today. It also helps build the future. When someone poisoned all the fish at night, this whole family had to pitch in to restock the pond. What he is holding is not a basket of fish but fees for his hotel management course.
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Can she do all that he can? Of course! But it is always nice to have a hand to drag in the net, heavy with fish. As for feeding the fish, all the women love to do it!
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He or she? Who is the real farmer? He has the time and inclination to travel and handle the heavy lifting. She has the home and the pond to run, with love, on time, day after day. She is happy giving him all the credit; he is proud that she is independent. So, the winner? Both!
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There is more to life than fishing. These are some of the supermen who work tirelessly to prevent accidents on the highway. And should one happen, they are the best bet to save a life. They treasure their badges, which they believe gives them the power to handle a great responsibility.
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Thotshots from Jodhpur

26/1/2022

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Nalanda Foundation used to spearhead the CSR activities of the IL&FS group of companies. I had the opportunity to see the idea of sustainable development in action during my brief association with Nalanda.

My work involved occasional visits to project sites to get a first-hand feel for all my writing. Beyond the official, my notes and camera would also capture whatever caught my interest. I would share these “Thotshots” (personal thoughts and random shots) with the team after every trip.
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Here are some thotshots from my visit to Jodhpur in October 2017.
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An area extending about five kilometers on either side of the road and stretching 10 kilometers beyond the board was to be covered by solar panels.

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This was one of the few families who were resettled to accommodate the solar project. It was a task to get the wife to come out and be photographed. It was even tougher to get father, mother, and daughter to stand relatively close to one another. A wise soul whispered in my ear: “They consider it bad luck to be photographed.” Please take note, selfie-crazy world!

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He was a regular at all the meetings the project team had with the village elders. I wondered what he had in mind. “I do not understand what you guys are talking about in your strange tongue. But I have a feeling what you decide will affect my life when I am old enough to understand.” Perhaps?
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They preferred to hide and panicked more than the four-legged kids did when I stepped in. He appeared to be in a bad mood and refused to smile. Then I showed him this very photo on the camera. Magic! He smiled!

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It is not unusual to find both mother and daughter(s) in the same class here. Most of them were married off when they were still children and became mothers before they could understand what marriage was all about. The project helped them resume education and regain confidence. Education apart, they were here for love and for togetherness without any discrimination.
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CSR: good for society, good for business

23/5/2019

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CSR
After I read a newspaper report about the state of drought in Maharashtra and how man and animal were both at the mercy of the next monsoon, I called up my friend. He is the CEO of a company that is involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR) work (including water conservation) in several villages.
 “I appreciate your concern, Mohan! We now have someone looking after our CSR activity. I will ask him to speak to you. Catch up later!”
That was abrupt! Was he too busy running the business to bother about CSR? My conversation with his new CSR Manager a day later was revealing.
“Thank you, Mr Joshi for your interest in my work. To be honest, I am busy with my year-end paperwork. I have budgets to prepare and I need to close year-end issues with our partner NGOs. Your suggestions are great, but I just don’t have the bandwidth to take up anything new. I have just one intern to help me. And the boss wants the impact presentation tomorrow.”
While I commiserated with him, I could not help wondering if the profit centres in my friend’s company made do with one intern and used that excuse: no bandwidth.
Saving 5000 mothers
Around the time Indian law mandated companies to spend a portion of their profits for social good, some of us were in Jawhar, a remote district in Palghar, Maharashtra. This place had various problems, but the specific issue on our radar was maternal mortality.
It was a familiar story—early marriage, the pressure to give birth to a male child leading to repeated pregnancies, no access to medical care and utter neglect of nutrition. Haemoglobin levels in expectant mothers in the region were at times less than 4 g/dl (whereas in a normal, urban setting a drop below 10 g/dl is enough to set off alarm bells).
Over the next three years, we achieved a fair amount of success—Hb levels rose, maternal mortality fell. Apart from the government, the Indian Medical Association and the NGO Pragati Pratishtan, many shared our work and the satisfaction we derived from it.
Meaningful engagement
I remember interacting with the audit team from one of the companies. They came there to ensure the medicines were being put to good use. They went back transformed, having seen how they were helping transform the very lives of poor villagers and save many mothers and infants.
I shared the Jawhar story with my busy CEO friend as we met at a Rotary lunch. I believed the audit team went back more committed to their employer, more charged up to do better work, I told him. And all of them became ambassadors for their company’s products. The other participating companies too must have experienced the positive change, if they had bothered to keep their customers and employees posted.
I was getting somewhere, but I could see my friend was still sceptical.
“So, like you guys did in Jawhar, my employees go out there, solve the drought and my business booms, is that it?” he smirked.
Precisely! I ignored the sarcasm.
“Listen, the law wants me to spend 2% on CSR and I am doing it. Beyond that, what’s in it for me?”
When you do good, sustainable work, you are fulfilling your responsibility to society. And, in the process, when you ensure your brand gets greater visibility, you are fulfilling your responsibility to all those who have a stake in your business.
That's what's in it for you
Having been his mentor, I knew some of the problems his company was facing.
Their product was technically superior. However, it was also pricier and struggling to survive in a market flooded with hundreds of cheaper, me-too competitors, who were more aggressive advertisers.
His company comprised several islands of excellence. The silos were deeply entrenched. Much as my friend tried to build them, the “we-are-one” bridges never survived for long.
At the same time, they were doing some good work on the CSR front. They had fabricated a library on wheels, the only source of books for schools in several villages. And their little water tankers on three wheels were the only source of drinking water in remote locations as the severe drought singed crops and lives.
Imagine, I told him, that you were some 20 years younger. You are social-media savvy, discerning and passionate. You are bold, intelligent, a fantastic team player and, yet, ever willing to trek down a new path.
He must have liked the picture I painted because he was smiling.
Now, would you like this younger version of you to be your customer? “Yes!”
Would you like to recruit him? “Of course!”
Perception as a differentiator
Suppose you had taken pains to make this young you aware of the good work you are doing in the villages around the factory. Is he likely to pay more for your product that is helping children read? Will he feel proud to belong to a company that is reaching drinking water to families living in barren lands? Even if he were not aware of your niche products, would he easily recollect your brand because the name was emblazoned on vehicles engaged in keeping the length and breadth of the town clean?
When you do good, sustainable work, you are fulfilling your responsibility to society. And, in the process, when you ensure your brand gets greater visibility, you are fulfilling your responsibility to all those who have a stake in your business. 
We talked for long. At the end of it, he wanted me to go over and address his senior team.
I hope your CSR Manager would be present, too? “Of course!”
I agreed to meet them after two weeks. I needed that time to put together some resumes to beef up his CSR department. That band deserved more width.
This was first posted by Mr Mohan Joshi in two parts in LeaderConnects. Abridged and re-posted with permission.
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