Our vanishing public spaces
With few notable exceptions, Indian cities have no non-religious, egalitarian public spaces
Anurag Behar

Wed, May 01 2013. 07 01 PM IST

 

My 16-year-old son and I play cricket and football together every weekend. Usually it is just the two of us; occasionally others join in. A couple of years ago, three men in their late twenties wanted to play with us. They looked almost Indian. Their speech gave them away before they told us that they were from Afghanistan. As is our wont, it was us against them, three on two. A tough game lasted 30 minutes with us ahead by a goal. They were thrilled, as were we.

 

We shook hands and as we parted they said that they were students of the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Bangalore. UAS is better known as Gandhi Krishi Vigyan Kendra (GKVK), which is where we play. After that day, they played with us on many weekends.

 

GKVK is beautiful. These days it’s sparkling yellow with the bloom of yellow tabebuia, this will turn to red with the monsoon bloom of the amaltas, pink in winter with pink tabebuia and purple with jacaranda little later. The 1,600 acre campus has dense tree cover in part, farms (their labs), playgrounds and open spaces. I run in this campus every morning. In fact it is a big part of the reason we live where we do. You will skirt this haven, as you drive in to Bangalore from the airport, but are unlikely to notice it.

 

On a recent Sunday, four boys wanted to play with us. Their ages seemed to range from 8-12. Two of them had torn shoes, two had no footwear. They played with energy, but with obvious lack of familiarity with a football. My son was very gentle with them, worried they would get hurt.

 

We couldn’t converse fluently; they spoke only a smattering of Hindi, and we don’t speak Telugu. We learnt that they lived on a nearby construction site, two of them with some distant relatives and two with their parents. They work from 9am to 9pm and are very happy that they have Sundays off. Two of them used to go to school when they lived in a village near Bellary. They were not 8-12 years old, but 12-16; poor nutrition trumps everything.

 

They conversed amongst themselves animatedly and then asked us the price of the football. My son told them it was Rs750. Their eyes widened in disbelief. They had intended to buy the ball off us. He gave them the ball and we left. They came running after us screaming in excitement: they wanted me to decide who amongst them would keep the ball.

 

What is the possibility of a child of upper middle class privilege, like my son, playing football with construction workers or with a bunch of Afghan men? The chances are zero. We live in different worlds in the same city with no common ground. The lack of common ground has complex reasons. One set arises from our impoverished urban environments with no accessible public spaces.

 

With few notable exceptions, Indian cities have no non-religious, egalitarian public spaces. The few that existed are vanishing and as our cities grow we are not making any attempts to build new ones.

 

GKVK exemplifies such a public space. That it is beautiful I have already said. They keep it clean, not in a synthetic ornamental way, but like a naturally growing wood. Three other factors make it a vibrant space. It is not ensconced in some posh area: this makes it physically accessible to all. It is not officiously governed and an enlightened choice has been made to let the university grounds be accessible to the public. Having run in more than 100 cities in India, I know how rare that is. Most importantly, it is not cordoned off by social barriers of privilege, felt intuitively and acutely by the less privileged. Construction workers and SUV owners alike use it and neither hesitate to come over.

 

A city is not its gated communities, but its public spaces. These define the character of any urban environment and connect the people of the city. Since we don’t have these, our cities have no (or are losing) character and have no sense of connectedness. Disregard of public spaces is only one aspect of our poor urban development. While we grapple with this complex overall problem, a step forward on the specific issue of public spaces would be if all academic institutions were to throw open their gates and play a role similar to the one like GKVK. One crisp, beautiful Bangalore winter evening, as I shook hands with our Afghan friends, one of them held on to my hand. He looked at my son and said, “You are lucky, you play with your son”. It was my Kabuliwala moment. After a few months, we saw them no more at GKVK. I wished then, as now, that they are playing with their sons.

 

Anurag Behar is CEO of Azim Premji Foundation and also leads sustainability initiatives for Wipro Ltd. He writes every fortnight on issues of ecology and education.

RTI Act should be applicable to curb corruption in any form in any place irrespective of whether it is private or public or any other format.

Getting facts and figures is the first step for justice.

If the RTI acted is implemented with the view to eliminate corruption, the heavy load on the corruption will increase for a few years but will gradually come down as the perpetrators will realise the consequences.

Very few CHS must be running with transparency and compliance to laws.

Illegal constructions,
Mg Committees despotic behaviour,
Illegal resolutions like levy of transfer and NOC charges,
Removing from Mg Committee honest members,
Instituting legal proceeding for expulsion for demanding transparency but interpreted as nuisance / preventing peaceful management of the society , Irregularities in the redevelopment and complete erosion of values

Evasion of Service taxes etc

 and the like

 have made unscrupulous members grab controlling interest in the CHS like they have grabbed in the local bodies, Legi8slative Assembly and Parliament.

Builders exploiting :

Builders violating DCR, selling open and stilt parking, cheating in the area of the flat by showing several items as part of the flat which cannot be easily identified by the common man.

Ruthless redevelopment is encouraged to amass wealth at the cost of damaging environment by dumping wast in mangroves, nallas, Highways, forsts  and other location very difficult to access and punish.

Water is consumed for construction depleting ground water resources.

Water Table gets seriously affected.

Selling of water is rampant in the country.

Natural resources are exploited by business .leaving the posterity to poverty.

In the name of development we are digging our grave.

We are destroying mother earth the goose that is laying golden eggs.

Extinction and not development will be the result..

P.N.Sridharan.
0 97571 34564

Sarena  C 502
Shanti Park
Ghatkopar East
Mumbai 400077
Ph:91-022-2506 5011

A code of conduct for politicians.

With reference to the recent spate of comments by politicians and their disregard for norms, an editorial in DNA (25/4/13) the daily has called for a Code of Conduct for Politicians. It is high time that Indian constitutional experts draw up a list of duties and responsibilities for politicians, especially hose who are in power. Our politicians behave more like rulers than as representatives of the people. They rarely keep in touch with the people as elections are won more on the basis of caste or creed than on the basis of social work in the area. That is why most of the funds allotted for social welfare measures are not even spent. That is why most of the public works are shoddy.That is why they can disparage voters with impunity. In any other country elected members of the parliament or assemblies would not go scot-free as in our country.
Curiously, the Forty Second Constitution Amendment Act, 1976, has incorporated 11 Fundamental Duties which include respecting the National flag and the National Anthem to safeguarding public property and abjuring violence. This was done during the Emergency regime of Indira Gandhi (1975-77). However, she never thought of any duties for the representatives of the people. The most important duty of a representative is to keep in touch with their constituents. They should present a report what they have done for the people who have voted them to the legislature and the state/country,twice a year. Mumbai citizens remember this exercise was done regularly by former Central Minister Ram Naik when he was in the Maharashtra Assembly, and later, when he was elected to the parliament. 
It should be the duty of of a representative to see that all budgeted amount for the constituency is spent without time over-run and cost over-run. Every constituency should have a voters' council consisting of teachers, professors, accountants, lawyers, workers selected by the Election Commission which should make them accountable. Number of questions asked by them, attendance of the legislature and other activities should be collected and presented to the people at a meeting organised by the Election Commission.Good governance norms and good conduct norms should be mandated by law and implemented by the Election Commission.
People should be able to contact the representatives whenever they need his assistance, He should be provided with an office and office assistants for this purpose. His phone number and e-mail address should be made available to the people to convey their views on various issues. Constant dialogue between the elected representatives and the voters is imperative to make our democracy people-centric.   

We need a hero to fix the mess

There is a sinking feeling that nothing is happening right and the world is deteriorating every day
Raghu Raman

Wed, May 01 2013. 12 28 AM IST

If our country’s newspapers were dashboards for the state of India’s security, they would tell a depressing story. Every page presents the mood and state of the nation that seems appallingly despondent. Rapes of children, deaths of the helpless, torture, nepotism, corruption, apathy, crumbling systems and the general degradation of society is chronicled in graphic detail. There is a sinking feeling that nothing is happening right and our world is deteriorating every day. And, while we berate failings of our institutions, advocate creation of new ones, ask for new laws, demand resignations and set up inquiries, perhaps we need a more radical answer.

We need a hero. A superman or superwoman to get us out this mess. Fortunately, there is someone who fits the bill perfectly. Before I tell you who that is, let me describe a typical day in the life of this superwoman.

When this superwoman goes for her morning walk, she notices rag pickers leaving for work. The rag pickers are often children between six and 10 years old, barefoot, filthy, hungry and scared. The superwoman asks them to follow her home. The children walk cautiously keeping a distance because they have been beaten by guards for entering gated colonies. Once home, the superwoman gives them old newspapers, magazines and other clothes, plastic utensils and trinkets she isn’t using any more. And this makes the children’s day.

Like Clark Kent, our superwoman drives to her regular day job. Before leaving however, she drops into the aged neighbour’s for a quick hello and to check if they need anything. Sometimes she helps them fix the Wi-Fi in their house or sort out some other errand, but mostly it’s just to make sure that they are okay. Her visit is often the highlight of the day for the old couple.

Unlike Batman, this superwoman doesn’t drive like a maniac. Matter of fact, she makes sure that rickshaw pullers carrying loads or cyclists who are edged out by the cars are given right of way. Like all of us, she is beleaguered by street kids at the traffic lights. She doesn’t shun or ignore them though. Instead she hands them small biscuit packets which becomes a meal to a malnourished child. When she runs out of the packets, she just smiles and talks to the kids nicely. And that makes their day too.

When the superwoman is at work, she finds time to talk to the peons, cleaners and other low-paid staff of the organization.

Surprisingly, she seems to be the rare one who actually knows their names, details of their children, and their problems. Using her superpowers of treating them as individuals with individual problems, she has discovered that many don’t get their actual dues. Part of their rightful salary is withheld by contractors or not credited into their provident funds. They don’t know how to go about getting basic things like a voter identity card or a bank account. They also don’t know what acts and facilities such as the Right to Education or Aadhaar mean for them. The superwoman finds the time to help them with it. Of course, all she needs to do is teach a few of them and the rest learn on their own. And that’s how she makes their life a bit better.

Since her co-workers figure that she is a superwoman, those needing help come for advice on issues ranging from sexual harassment to learning the ropes within the city. For instance, young girls from the hinterland have no idea how to handle the challenges of a metro. The superwoman helps them find accommodation, vouches for them, connects them to people who can carpool, and teaches them basic survival skills.

When not working, the superwoman has other super tasks. She sometimes does book readings in the school for the blind. They like this so she records the books and hundreds who can’t see can now listen to her. Other times she is involved in resident welfare associations where she starts programmes to help tutor the children of household help. Sometimes she tutors them herself. When she is too busy, she gathers these poor children, switches on the TV at her home and just lets them watch educational channels for a few hours.

Every year, before the winters set in, she collects old clothes and distributes them to orphanages. Her cache of goodies includes used toys, old books, notebooks, diaries, and the list goes on. She knows that the unused trash of one person can be a prized possession for another and all she needs to do is to make that connect happen.

If she hears about ill treatment of servants in the neighbourhood, she gets involved. If she hears that a neighbour is unwell, she steps in. The superwoman has discovered that there are a thousand ways to be super and most are simple to the point of being mundane and yet sheer miracles for those who need it. All she needs to do is get involved. That’s it.

You know who the superperson is—or could be. There is indeed no hero in shining armour who’s going to come and rescue us. But there is another definition of a hero. A hero is any individual who, when faced with an undesirable situation, employs the means at her disposal to make that situation better.

We need a hero. And if we want to—we all can be one. All it takes is to get involved.

Raghu Raman is an expert and a commentator on internal security.

With servant leadership, a leader's primary role is to serve employees. Everyone from Lao-Tzu to Max De Pree thinks this a wonderful model. Why then, asks Professor Jim Heskett, is this style so rare among CEOs?


by Jim Heskett

Servant leadership is an age-old concept, a term loosely used to suggest that a leader's primary role is to serve others, especially employees. I witnessed a practical example of it at a ServiceMaster board meeting in the 1990s when CEO William Pollard spilled a cup of coffee prior to the board meeting.

Instead of summoning someone to clean it up, he asked a colleague to get him cleaning compound and a cloth, things easily found in a company that provided cleaning services. Whereupon he proceeded to get down on his hands and knees to clean up the spill himself. The remarkable thing was that board members and employees alike hardly noticed as he did it. It was as if it was expected in a company with self-proclaimed servant leadership.

Lao-Tzu wrote about servant leadership in the fifth-century BC: "The highest type of ruler is one of whose existence the people are barely aware…. The Sage is self-effacing and scanty of words. When his task is accomplished and things have been completed, all the people say, 'We ourselves have achieved it!'"

It is natural, rightly or wrongly, to relate servant leadership to the concept of an inverted pyramid organization in which top management "reports" upward to lower levels of management. At other times it has been associated with organizations that have near-theological values (for example, Max De Pree's leadership at Herman Miller, as expressed in his book, Leadership is an Art, that emphasizes the importance of love, elegance, caring, and inclusivity as central elements of management). In that regard, it is also akin to the pope's annual washing and kissing of the feet as part of the Holy Thursday rite.

The modern era of servant leadership began with a paper, The Servant as Leader, written by Robert Greenleaf in 1970. In it, he said: "The servant leader is servant first … It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead … (vs. one who is leader first…) … The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons … (and become) more likely themselves to become servants?"

Now it appears that a group of organizational psychologists, led by Adam Grant, are attempting to measure the impact of servant leadership on leaders, not just those being led. Grant describes research in his recent book, Give and Take, that suggests that servant leaders are not only more highly regarded than others by their employees and not only feel better about themselves at the end of the day but are more productive as well. His thesis is that servant leaders are the beneficiaries of important contacts, information, and insights that make them more effective and productive in what they do even though they spend a great deal of their time sharing what they learn and helping others through such things as career counseling, suggesting contacts, and recommending new ways of doing things.

Further, servant leaders don't waste much time deciding to whom to give and in what order. They give to everyone in their organizations. Grant concludes that giving can be exhausting but also self-replenishing. So in his seemingly tireless efforts to give, described in the book, Grant makes it a practice to give to everyone until he detects a habitual "taker" that can be eliminated from his "gift list."

Servant leadership is only one approach to leading, and it isn't for everyone. But if servant leadership is as effective as portrayed in recent research, why isn't it more prevalent? What do you think?