"Cross border learning in the region can really help all", Pramod John

Prakruthi is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) established in India in 1992. It emerged as the culmination of the Chipko-Appiko movement in the Western Ghats in the states of Karnataka in South India; where students returned to their local communities to help improve the lives of economically challenged families.
The main objective of this organisation is to work towards evolving an ecologically sound and sustainable development strategy in the tropical forest region of Karnataka.
Prakruthi's activities are focused on:
-- Conserving tropical forests
-- Reducing the pressure on the forest for fuel wood
-- Protecting natural biodiversity and promoting ecological agriculture and Agro-biodiversity
-- Documenting and disseminating traditional knowledge on natural resources
The founder of Prakruthi, Pramod John shared his experience of establishing a self-funded project of this nature and expanding it to drive the scope of CSR activities performed by companies in India.
The following transcript comprises excerpts from this exclusive interview:
BR Research: Tell us more about where the idea behind Prakruthi emerged and how it developed in the early days?
Pramod John: It all started when I was still in convent school in India. In my school there was a social service program, under which the students would visit the adjoining slum areas after school hours. These 'ghats' or slums were generally located in the areas adjoining the developed townships on government owned forest areas and other abandoned or idle land.
While our intended purpose as students had been to help them financially, our experiences with many of these people affect our understanding of the fabric of society. I personally met many people who were living in completely undeveloped areas, in seemingly abject conditions with their families; yet they were content and happy to be there.
The students would often be perplexed about how these people could live so differently as compared to the city dwellers close by. The economic disparities were also very striking for us.
So from these experiences arose a realisation that although the economic order has a big part to play in perpetuating such disparities; there are many other cultural and social forces at play as well that affect people. For example the caste system still exists in India and that causes some segments of society to become subservient to segments.
We were also aware that the youth make up about 18 percent of India's population. So you have almost one fifth of the country who are receiving an education which is being financed by the money of the tax payers; the people who are suffering. It seemed that the best and the brightest were being trained and educated by using the resources of others but would then pursue their careers abroad and not give back much to society.
Our focus was on developing ways that the youth can access education and then in turn give back to society. In the beginning I started approaching people whom I knew or got acquainted with and asked them to join me in building a movement for this purpose. You will be surprised by how many people want to make a contribution that actually goes towards bringing about positive changes in the country.
Gradually as the scope of Prakruthi expanded we formed a partnership with another organisation called Partners in Change (PIC). Together we started programs in the Southern states of India. PIC already had the support of many multilateral agencies and local partnerships.
Together we started ground work in coffee, tea, garments and cotton. Typically we would look into issues like cleaning the supply chain, lobbying for the share of the bottom of the pyramid, etc. As we undertook these projects there arose the realisation that we would have to tap more funding to ensure that adequate resources were allocated in key areas. Until this point we had remained a self sustained body which I was supporting but now the scale would have to rise.
BRR: Now Prakruthi is reporting on CSR activities taking place not just in India, but in Pakistan and other countries of the region. How did this role emerge?
PJ: The activities that any company performs have myriad affects on the environment and the society around them. Many companies are cognisant of this impact and many others are not.
The understanding and practice of CSR activities in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are all at very different levels. Similarly there may be very different levels of compliance for a similar operation, product or service within these countries and across borders.
So we realised that cross border learning in the region can really help all corporations improve their business models in terms of their impact on the environment, the impact on society and the impact on the company's own gains.
Another incentive for us was that we had already started developing expertise in some sectors such as sugar. We realised that sugar is not just a major source of income for many farmers in India but also in Pakistan and Bangladesh. So by sharing these experiences with organisations in other countries we could help people in other countries reaping similar gains.
Even the people of these countries are now starting to talk about building more bridges. There is immense desire and capacity to expand regional trade and commercial ties. The governments of India and Pakistan are progressing towards better trade ties.
A major chunk of the 6.9 billion people of the world are living in this region. They all aspire towards a good life. They all want to live in harmony. There are many misconceptions between people but these cannot persist indefinitely. By building ties across borders, we can help people attain progress that is mutually beneficial.