Soul Searching

Vijay Mahajan:

“Here I am in the middle way, Having had twenty years, Twenty years largely wasted… The years of l’entre deux guerres”. TS Eliot’s lines come to mind and it metamorphoses into “Here I am at the end of the way, Having had thirty years, Thirty years largely wasted… The years of les guerres de l’interne”I am about to reach Sevagram. Came here first in 1982 when I was working with a Gandhian NGO the Association of Sarva seva farms, which worked to rehabilitate landless families which had received Bhoodan (land gift) under the campaign led by Vinoba Bhave, when he walked 40,000 kms over 14 years (1951 to 1965) to appeal to landlords to give some of their land to the landless.Thirty years…largely wasted? Who can tell? Just emerging raw from the microfinance crisis. A field which was received a Nobel Prize for one of its pioneers, Dr Mohammed Yunus and was widely praised till a year ago is now widely condemned – by people like Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, and the former Reserve Bank of India Governor Dr YV Reddy. What is real? The earlier assessment or the current one? What is real is what the people say.That is why this Shodh Yatra. An exploration of truth. Unable to match Gandhi, one can at least mimic him. Maybe, exploration will lead to experimentation. So what leads me to begin this journey? A lot is there in the name – Lok Jagaran Yatra was the first formulation – a journey to awaken the people. Then Mahashakti Jagaran Yatra, even stronger, with a Maha pun intended. But on second thoughts, I have dropped both for a simple Shodh Yatra – a search for the truth, the wisdom that lies with the people.So that is what it is – Shodh Yatra, an extended grassroots enquiry into the lives and livelihoods of poor people. It is a hybrid yatra – I will walk while in a village or a town, stopping by every once in a while to have a dialogue; and drive between habitations. I intend to do this for 60 days over a period of Jan 30, 2011 (today) till April 18, 2011. The beginning date an place are significant to me – today is Gandhiji’s martyrdom day and I am starting from his Ashram in Sevagram, Wardha; near Nagpur in Central India.

Vijay Mahajan has rightly been called the father of commercial microfinance in India. But even within the movement he started, he has always marched to the beat of a more evidence-based drummer. A decade ago, his organization, BASIX, commissioned research showing that while half its borrowers were getting ahead, a quarter were falling behind. Risk was a major theme in their lives. That led him to overhaul BASIX to offer insurance, training, and other services along with credit. In recent months this titular head of the microcredit industry (president of the industry association MFIN), has been both a vocal critic of the business and a strong advocate for its survival.Vijay is blogging his journey in detail. It is a bit hard to follow if, like me, you know little about India. It is written for Indians.What is clear is that he is not leaving his old life behind. Rather, he is continuing it. Once again he is doing research, talking to regular people to help him guide BASIX. He has brought his smartphone and he is using the blog to fire off quick memos to staff:

After a while, I asked them if they mind if I record them on video using my Blackberry, and they said yes. So we have some five interviews on video.** Sushil – There are many lessons here for our discussions last week in B-ABLE about enhancing our understanding of how informal sector workers find work, pick up skills, etc. The idea of “training in a sachet” or nano-training seems possible with this bunch of already working skilled workers.

Now that's something you don't see everyday. It will be very interesting to see where Vijay ends up.