(Ravi and Aravinda will be sharing their experiences of working in the villages and plans for next few years at a public meeting organised by AID Boston this weekend:..

Daate: September 9, 2006 (2:30pm)
venue: mit student center, 3rd floor,
mezzanine lounge
84 Massachusetts ave, cambridge
contact:  Raju 301 717 1059

)

JeevanSaathi Aravinda Pillalamarri has been working with Association for India Development (AID) since 1995 and has played a key role in expanding AID's vision and mission. One of her most important contributions has been to advocate a model of participatory development where issues of social justice are at the heart of developmental work. Thus she has been instrumental in forging AID's solidarity with grassroots people's movements like Narmada Bachao Andolan and the NAPM. Aravinda moved to India in 1998 on completing her Master's degree in South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin and has since worked full-time for AID. She also holds a Master's Degree in Library Sciences from Simmons College, Boston.

Aravinda's work in India includes
• championing models of livelihood that are based on ecologically sustainable methods of production,
• building networks of fair trade within the context of marketing traditional artisanal work,
• creating learning resources that the educated and urban middle class may use to understand the perspectives and analyses voiced by the people central to the processes of social change, who are too often marginalized from prevailing development planning owing to poverty and oppression.
• supporting cultural and political expression in local and tribal languages

She has worked with AID-India in promoting village libraries, organic farming, women's groups, and sustainable technological innovations through the AID Rural Technology Resource Center in Orissa. She is a visiting Faculty at the Jagannath Institute for Technology Management in rural Orissa.

Aravinda has written for The Hindu, Economic & Political Weekly and is working on "Signals in the Fog", a book-in-progress that reflects lessons learned during the course of her work with AID. Aravinda is married to Ravi Kuchimanchi, and they have one daughter, Khiyali.

For more information about AID please check their website at
http://aidindia.org

You have made a great  journey from being an NRI who lived in the US to becoming a leader in bringing about social change in India.
Could you describe that journey for us?

I was born in Tenali and came to the United States when I was a year old.  I went to school in Maryland and later attended Johns Hopkins and got a BA in Literature.

All along I always wanted to work in a place where my services where most needed. Growing up in the US I used to see a lot of information on needs in Africa. I knew very little about the needs in India .

When I was twenty one, I met a lady who was running an ashram in India. It was a religious organization, but they also had a school associated with the ashram. It was in Cudappah district in Andrapradesh.  She welcomed visitors to help at the school and the ashram. Somehow this hit a chord with me and I went and lived in this village and volunteered at the school.   The experience was a fabulous one. I learnt what it was to live in a village. I also learnt about the differences between teaching in the US and India. I had always treasured the libraries in the US. As someone said, no one has every flunked a library. I had found the library as a way to learn in a manner that suited me. The school in India did have a library but its use was so different from what I was used to in the US. Access was very limited and the library use was not structured or integrated with the school curriculum. 

I came back after six months and decided that I would like to promote public libraries in India so students can benefit from it. I moved to Boston and did my masters in Library Science and worked in the Libraries at the Boston Conservatory and BBN.

During my time in Baltimore and Boston I was drawn to grassroots movements in the US particularly the environment and peace movements. Unfortunately during my time in India and later during the early 90s I was not aware of any grassroots efforts in India where people who were affected by an issue could be empowered to bring about change. In 1995 I saw a documentary on the Narmada Bachao Andolan, where the people were able to force big organizations like the World Bank to pull out and rethink their position. This was my first exposure to grassroots movements in India. I think watching this I knew, I had found my calling. I wanted to be part of such efforts.

Later I married Ravi Kuchimanchi, the founder of AID and together we were able to move to India and we now are AID Jeevansathis.

Could you describe your partnership with Ravi and how you specifically influenced the development of AID?

Actually it is a funny story. When I completed my Master's, I continued working in Boston, still figuring out how I would again work in India.

Meanwhile one day my parents called me with great excitement.  They had attended a cultural program, "India Beckons" organized by AID,  and found a group of people who were talking about very similar ideas for social change they had been hearing from me.  That is where they first heard Ravi talk about his work and couldn't wait to introduce us to each other.  Later that summer I attended a General Body meeting of AID that sparked my interest.

Ravi and I got to know each other well through AID, and much to my parents delight, we got married

Ravi established AID in 1991. Balaji Sampath joined the organization in 1994. While both of them wanted to go to India and work in the villages, they had never met anyone NRI who had actually done that. People around them were being negative saying that living in a village is impossible and that they would not be able to do much good. When I attended the meeting and shared my experience on going to India and living in a village for six months by myself, it gave a boost to their morale. I could give them some first hand information on working in a village. Balaji wanted to quit his PhD immediately and leave, but his advisor talked him into finishing it.  He did so in record time and moved back to India in 1997.  When he returned there was no formal program to support him. Friends in AID informally pooled some cash together to support his basic expenses so that he could focus entirely on working in the villages.  Later Ravi and I moved back to India as well. Rachna and Kamayani followed and the list of AID Jeevansathis continues to grow.

Since joining AID I have learned so much, and tried to use what I learned to contribute to the organization.  When grassroots workers like Medha Patkar or rural journalist Sainath met us in 1997, it became crystal clear to us that social justice must be at the heart of development work.  But how do we put that into practice?  We worked on forging AID's solidarity with grassroots people's movements like Narmada Bachao Andolan and the NAPM

Can you describe the principles that guide AID's work?

We have adopted a three part approach to development – they are Sangarsh, Nirman and Seva . While this literally translates to Struggle, Constructive Work and Service, we have a special interpretation for each of these terms. For us Sangarsh is to speak truth to power. We want the people who are affected by an event to directly speak to people in power. This is often a struggle. For example there was a case where the Harijan section of a village did not have electricity due to some bureaucracy issues. AID volunteers including Ravi and a professor from IIT Kanpur accompanied the people to see the officers. Remaining in the background, the AID volunteers witnessed how the government officers treated the people who tried to meet them. The officer was not aware of their presence and was not giving a moment of time to listen to the concerns of the people. After nearly six hours of paying no attention to the villagers from the Harijan section, suddenly he became aware of the AID volunteers and his entire approach changed.  He welcomed everyone and commended their good works. We feel strongly that the officials should listen to the people directly and hence we never speak for the people. Such Sangarsh is central to our work.

Nirman for us is practicing solutions that are in tandem with the traditions of the people we are working with.  We oppose large scale development that often does more harm than good like the large scale extraction of minerals or groundwater, deforestation and displacement for short term gains.  We look into alternative energy approaches and different approaches for education and health. 

Seva for us is a commitment to living responsibly. It is important for us to personally relate to the cause and to the people who we are working with.

What do you consider to be the greatest success for AID?

In the US I think our greatest contribution has been that we were able to show people that they can relate to the causes in India, connect with the struggling people, and make a difference. We have internship programs which give opportunities to many to experience life in a different setting and contribute in unique ways.

In India, our greatest successes come when we are able to hold the government accountable to its own laws.  We have observed this in areas where we have directly taken a stand.  In Narmada, when the Sardar Sarovar Porject was going up even while people were living in the villages, we stood shoulder to shoulder with them and supported their demands for compensating crop losses resulting from illegal submergence, and ensuring full rehabilitation prior to construction.  The government has not fully met this demand but without the people's struggle not even the current level of rehabilitation would have been done, and by supporting this struggle we have learned to speak to government officials, write letters to press, question false claims that bureaucrats use to promote the projects in spite of illegalities.

At the same time we find that there are many responsible officers who do want the government to work.  We have had great results working with them.   In Tamil Nadu AID India has introduced certain educational techniques for teaching reading and science and the government is trying to incorporate these.  In Maharashtra one of our close partners has pioneered a model for health care in remote areas, and the government has started adopting this.
 
We have many projects that have shown great results. Of course one must remember that all this is but a drop in the bucket. Still every drop counts.

I find it interesting that instead of working around the government you are working with the government. Is this possible in India?

We always expect to government to work. We never let the government not fulfill their responsibility. We always assume that the government shares our concern and speak to them as if they do. This was the greatest lesson I learnt from Medha Patkar.   The thing to remember is that the government is not a monolith. There are many who really want to help but sometimes they need external support to enable them to do the work against the wishes of their colleagues and superiors.

What would you consider to be the greatest challenge faced by AID?

The greatest challenge is to answer the question Gandhiji posed in his famous Talisman: Keep in mind the poorest and weakest, and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is of any use to them? It may be directly or indirectly useful but ultimately it must be useful, or we can get caught up with ourselves.

Recently we faced the question of what possible use our programs such as Khadi tailoring, Vermicompost, or children's libraries could be to the poorest and weakest in the blocks where we work in Srikakulam District. Our village team met a number of elderly poor who were quite weak or disabled and unable to earn even a daily wage. It is easy to support those who can help themselves, but to provide support those who cannot is a major challenge. The village is now running a lunch shelter for the elderly poor, using local donations as well as part of the proceeds from sale of the eco-products. And by connecting with the poorest of the poor, when we are demanding information and accounts, we can make the government hear their voices as well. .

India is touted as a major power now. With all the development there are a lot of problems as well. Do we need to have special laws to protect India?

If corporations follow the laws that are in place already we are in a good shape.  Whether it be Union Carbide, Coca Cola , Enron or any of the other companies, all problems with  multinationals as well as national companies begin when they break the law or try to change it for their own benefit. happened when they broke the law.

I would like bring to your attention two recently enacted landmark legislations. They are the Right to Information Act and the National Rural Employment Act. The first helps us keep the government accountable and allows honest officers to do their job.  The second is the right to 100 days of paid labor for any landless laborer which not only helps the laborer but can help rural development projects 

Ashutosh Gowarikar has credited you and Ravi for being the inspiration for his movie Swades. How did the film affect your life and work?

Well it is not everyday that you get this kind of attention. Many students who saw the film were inspired and it brought a few speaking opportunities our way. So it was nice.

Do you have any message for or readers?

It is important to be aware of and learn from the third and fourth worlds. These worlds exist in Boston or in New England, just as the first world exists in Mumbai and Delhi -- just as unsustainably as in the West

If anyone is getting involved in community service it is important to hear the voices of the people who are central to the issue. IT is also important to remember that service is not a one way street. People I work with help me as much as I help them.
I would also like to tell youngsters that I have been blessed that I have had the opportunity to live the life that I wished for. I think it happened because I was committed to perusing my passion. I would encourage them to do that as well.

Thank you for your time

Thank you

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