Stories About Real People

by Suresh Kr Pramar 

 Jerro Billimoria is no movie star. Nor is she a social butterfly or an aspiring politician. Jerro is an ordinary middle class woman with an extraordinary talent. She has the talent to feel the suffering of the destitute and deprived. What makes her unique is the fact that she is not an idealist, she is not mere talker she is a doer. She is a woman with feeling who believes in action to help the most vulnerable in society. As a young girl fresh out of college Jeroo was moved by the sufferings of the street children she saw everyday at the Mumbai local railway stations. Moved by their plight she took the first steps in creating the first Childline in the country. The Ten-Nine-Eight-Childline under her forceful direction has today become the main child protection vehicle in the entire country. Thanks to Jeroo’s initiative “millions of children in India, who live on the streets and work as underaged labour now have a twenty-four hour helpline and response system to carter to their emergency needs.” What started out as a trickle during its early days in 1996 has grown into a nationwide support system receiving several thousand calls reporting injuries, abuse, abandonment, assault, illness, AIDs etc, every day. Because of her initiative and determination Jeroo has provided street children hope and the opportunity to find their own space and develop their talents. Childline has helped to reunite hundreds of abandoned children with their families in addition to providing them education, health facilities and protection Javed Abidi could well be dismissed as yet another differently abled wheel chair bound individual. But unlike most differently abled Javed is no ordinary person. He is a man with a strong character who has not allowed his disability to impede his determination and desire to work for the betterment of society and more particularly for people differently abled like him. Born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, in 1965 with a spinal problem Javed has battled his way through his medical problem to become a relentless fighters for the rights of the differently abled people in the country. He does not look at his disability as a curse but an opportunity to work for the rights of his fellow disabled. Says Javed, “ I have learned to be friends with my disability in a nice, slow, systematic manner... I don’t remember any kind of sadness or anger associated with my disability I have never felt handicapped “ A disability is not a curse in and of itself. A disability becomes a curse in India because it leads to a million other handicaps. Tomorrow if the thinking changed, disability would at most be a setback. This country has to change.” To bring about this change Javed has devoted his time and energy. He has laboured hard to bring in the legal changes required to provide the disabled the respect and the opportunities they need to live a life of dignity and economic independence. He has used every opportunity to drive home the social injustices being heaped on the disable and has advocated for opportunity and systems which are the right of the handicapped. Slowly but surely Javed has been instrumental in bringing about many changes which have helped the differently abled. Jeroo and Javed are but two of the many people worldwide who have shown “How to Change the World” They are social entrepreneurs who have with the use of the power of new ideas brought about changes in ways that seem unbelievable. Though these people have been instrumental in bringing about social change little is known about them or their activities. Relatively little is heard about the struggles and successes of these people who are advancing positive changes. The ratio of problem focused information to solution focused information in the media is complete out of balance. David Bornstein in his book How to Change the World: Social Entreprenuers and the Power of New Ideas, has put together stories about social entrepreneurs who have developed solutions to major social problems. The book is about real people doing real things well. It reveals that creative people with fixed determination and an indomitable will can carry through innovations society needs to solve its many seemingly insurmountable problems According to Bornstein an important social change frequently begins with a single obsessive person who sees a problem and envisions a new solution. He takes the initiative to action on that vision and gathers the resources and builds the organisation to protect and market that vision. He is the person who provides the energy and sustained focus to overcome the resistance and who keeps improving, strengthening and broadening that vision till what was once a marginal idea becomes a new norm. All the characters Bornstein has included in the book have shown that they possess powerful ideas to tackle problems and are unable or unwilling to rest unless they have spread their ideas throughout the society. The author has shown how these social entrepreneurs have actually worked to make the change happen. The book examines the strategies, the organisational characteristics and the personal qualities that go to explain the success of the social entrepereneurs. Says Borntein “ Across the world, social entrepreneurs are demonstrating new approaches to many social evils and new models to create wealth, promote social well being and restore the environment. Today individuals seeking meaningful work frequently opt to build, join, advocate for, or support organisations that are more innovative, more responsive and operationally superior to the traditional social structures. “The people share the desires of people everywhere: to apply their talents in ways that bring security, recognition and meaning. The citizen sector offers a broad avenue to satify the needs to align what you care about, what you are good at and what you enjoy doing and have real impact.” Bornstein devotes special attention to Bill Drayton who started Ashoka: Innovators For The Public, the world’s first large scale class of civil servants devoted to public welfare. Drayton is profoundly inspired by Ashoka the Indian Ruler, after whom the organisation has been named, Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave. Drayton was most facinated by Gandhi’s “how-dos”. “He believed that Gandhi’s greatest insight was recognising early in the twentieth century that a new type of ethics was emerging in the world, an ethics grounded not in rules, but in empathy.”According to Bornstein it was Drayton who first coined the phase Social Entrepreneurs. Ashoka, says Bornstein, is the only organisation which actively monitors social entrepreneuership on a global level. Its search and selections methods are the most rigorous. Most of the people written about in the book are either members of Ashoka or have been identified by them. The stories have been written in a very readable style. Being a journalist Bornstein has kept his narration simple bringing out the best about his subjects It is a book which I think should be read by all those who plan to join the gang of change makers, people who want truely to live up to their responsibilities as Corporate Social Responsibility practitioners.