'Collaborative action can bring about social change'
TNN | Mar 10, 2019, 21:01 IST
Neera NundyMUMBAI: Collaborative action is the way to go for bringing about maximum social change, said Neera Nundy, Co-Founder of Dasra at an event in Mumbai on Saturday.
Two days of intense debates and discussions about what is currently plaguing philanthropy in India, and how best to solve these issues, was held as part of the Dasra Philathropy Week 2019.
One of these key debates was on the necessity and viability of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in India's economy, to bring about social change. While Arun Mutreja, Save the Children Foundation, and Pravin Gandhi, Seedfund, argued for M&As, Geetanjali Jha Chakroborty, ARMMAN, and Alkesh Wadhwani, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, argued against them. What was predominant at the end of this debate was the idea that while mergers or acquisitions may be ideal, they may not be so practical in India. So, the conclusion was that collaborating and partnering up for specific causes or projects might be a more pragmatic approach for significant social change.
Rumkini Banerji, CEO, Pratham, elaborated on the use of data for social change. She made use of statistics from the ASER (Annual Status of Education Report), 2018 to make her point, on how literacy is growing in numbers among children from different age groups, how literacy is not at the same level within children of the same age group, thus implying the need for differential educational practices in order to create uniform levels.
Sanjay Purohit, Societal Platform, Ekstep Foundation and Sunil Anand, Project Echo, had a discussion that focused on Project Echo, and on a unified, yet not uniform, way to bring social change to a larger number of people. The idea that was put forth by Anand was that in order to increase accessibility to healthcare and health tech, it is not the patients that need to move. Instead, the mobility of knowledge and building capacity within organizations is what would revolutionize medical education and practice. He concluded that technology and capacity building is essential when it comes to the scaling of non-profits, and on a broader level, creating impact with social initiatives.
Two days of intense debates and discussions about what is currently plaguing philanthropy in India, and how best to solve these issues, was held as part of the Dasra Philathropy Week 2019.
One of these key debates was on the necessity and viability of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in India's economy, to bring about social change. While Arun Mutreja, Save the Children Foundation, and Pravin Gandhi, Seedfund, argued for M&As, Geetanjali Jha Chakroborty, ARMMAN, and Alkesh Wadhwani, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, argued against them. What was predominant at the end of this debate was the idea that while mergers or acquisitions may be ideal, they may not be so practical in India. So, the conclusion was that collaborating and partnering up for specific causes or projects might be a more pragmatic approach for significant social change.
Sanjay Purohit, Societal Platform, Ekstep Foundation and Sunil Anand, Project Echo, had a discussion that focused on Project Echo, and on a unified, yet not uniform, way to bring social change to a larger number of people. The idea that was put forth by Anand was that in order to increase accessibility to healthcare and health tech, it is not the patients that need to move. Instead, the mobility of knowledge and building capacity within organizations is what would revolutionize medical education and practice. He concluded that technology and capacity building is essential when it comes to the scaling of non-profits, and on a broader level, creating impact with social initiatives.
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