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Rejuvenate India Movement |
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Talk by Dr. Sudharshan in Washington
Department of Physics
University of Maryland, College Park
July 14, 2002
Dr. Sudharshan started his talk with a brief summary of his background. He currently works in (informally known as Veerappan's place) the border areas to TN. He went to a village as a child. There he lost his father due to lack of health services. At that moment he decided to become a doctor. He also got very influenced by Swami Vivekananda's teachings. He spent a few years with Ramakrishna Mission. He then started VGKK (Vivekananda Girijana Kalyan Kendra).
This talk is divided into two parts. In the first part, Dr. Sudharshan wants to talk about RIM and its activities in India. In the second part, Dr. Sudharshan wants to talk about Health Task Force and share his experiences as the Vigilance Director of Lokayukta, Karnataka.
Rejuvenate India Movement
A couple of years ago Dr. Parameswara Rao (founder of BCT) was traveling USA to meet like minded people in brining a change in India. Dr. Rao has been working in India for more than 30 years. After this experience, he realized that we needed a systemic change in our country to make large scale changes in our society. That vision contributed to the formation of Rejuvenate India Movement (RIM). One of the action items for RIM is stimulated volunteerism. It started with an ambitious goal of having 100,000 volunteers in entire India. However, the initial enthusiasm in RIM USA volunteers slowly evaporated and the support to RIM India started dwindling. Currently, we have around 65 volunteers in India. However, these volunteers are doing an excellent job and that motivated RIM India to pass a resolution that with or without any support from RIM USA, they will continue this program. Dr. Sudharshan wanted to approach organizations such as AID, ASHA, ILP to adopt and/or support 5-10 volunteers on their behalf. The cost of supporting each volunteer is $1/day. The idea behind this program is to take the concept of volunteerism out of institutional framework and make it into a movement.Q&A and Discussion
A member from the audience. Where are your finances coming from? Dr. Sudharshan. Mostly from USA. Now we are approaching other sources in India such as Sudha Murthy (Infosys), CAPART etc.
Dr. Bhagat: The original idea of stimulated
volunteerism is spectacularly done by RIM India.
However, it is not a good idea to tie it with an NGO.
Dr. Sudharashan: I want to make it very clear that
we want Samaj Shilpis to be not working on the
project they are associated with. Also, we want to
have one Samaj Shilpi recruiting hundreds of
volunteers from the villages they are working. This
is the concept behind this program. That is how it
is supposed to become a movement.
Naasimhan: Did RIM take any stand on political issues?
Dr. Sudharshan: It is too early for us to take such
actions. However, corruption is the issue that we
like to take up.
Narasimhan: When you say stimulated volunteer, do
you pay him/her?
Dr. Sudharshan: Yes. It is $1/day to sustain their
livelihood.
Ashwin: How can we get into a movement from where
we are? Can we form a strategic vision that can help
us take our idea to a broad audience even if we do
not have volunteers in each village?
Dr. Sudharshan: I am not sure if anything other
than a change that happens at the village level can
bring the kind of impact we need. The concept of
Gram Swaraj is the basis of our vision.
Dr. Singh: Do you have any changes that you can
share from our experiments?
Dr. Sudharshan: We are there only for 1 year. It is
too short to have an impact. Basically, we need RIM
USA to trust RIM India and extend the support
promised in Ganges. No matter what RIM USA decides,
we in RIM India decided that we would sustain the
existing 60 odd volunteers. Srinivas Savaram added
that in 2003, the volunteers will be working
together and share experiences through extended
interaction.
Narmrata: Why do we need AID, RIM etc? Why can't AID
support RIM volunteers?
Dr. Bhagat: First of all, AID did support Balamadiram
project. Having said that when Dr. Rao felt that
unless a systemic change happens there will not be
a permanent change that's when RIM was created.
That's how the vision of starting a movement came
up which led to RIM.
Dr. Singh: May be there is a clue here. Unless there
is a vision that everybody shares, we cannot have
a unified movement. What is RIM's vision?
Dr. Sudharshan: We want to rejuvenate Gram Swaraj
concept. We already made a lot of progress in Gram
Panchayat system in 200 villages. From this experience
we believe that it will help bring the change. I am
convinced that we need a small Gandhi in every
village. Otherwise, even policy level changes do not
make any impact without ground level empowerment.
Health Task Force
Dr, Sudharshan is the chairman of Karnataka's Health Task Force. Thanks to the CM and some help from honest health officials, they are able to make some changes. Please click here for the presentation material. In addition, please click here for a brief presentation on Lokayukta.
Q&A and Discussion
Ashwin: How often do you find committed people among doctors?Dr. Sudharshan: There are several (not very many) honest people among these professions. The unfortunate thing is that good people do not come together as well as the bad people organize themselves. The approach has to be bottom-up. We need to create awareness at the ground level. We need people who can speak with authenticity. Unless, we have mini Gandhis who can stand up for their beliefs, we cannot bring any change.
Ashish: Corruption is such a big problem. Have you
identified the top issues that you are focusing on:
Dr. Sudharshan: Yes. We like to address corruption
at:
- Registration office (that registers land, property etc.)
- Regional Transportation Office
- Public Works Department
- Revenue Department
Dr. Sudharshan: The powers are limited. They took away many of the powers they gave. Still, it is possible to do the job if there is a will at the top level.
Srinivas Krovvidy: How assertive are the Lokayuktas
in other states?
Dr. Sudharshan: Not very good. It all depends on the
person and his/her willingness to do the job. On a
related note, the current budget for lokayukta
is Rs. 7 crores in Karnataka. We need more support.
In summary, it needs to be recognized that without
electoral reforms we can not achieve major results.
In addition, we also need a value system in all
aspects of life. We need this system to be instilled
among doctors, engineers, politicians, teachers,
govt. officials etc. Any public issue can only
be solved when people take charge of the issue.
They can do that by demanding more powers to Lok
Ayukta and also ensuring that it performs genuinely.
Click here for a brief biography of Dr. Sudharshan
(As the minute taker, I am responsible for any errors and/or omissions in this document. If you have any questions, please email me at srinivas@aidindia.org)