pragmatically optimistic…

my summer internship ended this past friday, august 11.  two days before its conclusion, our team had a meeting with the maharashtra state secretary of education, all of his department directors, two private sector banks, and a mutlilateral.  our job was to present a plan for addressing the growing need to provide education services to out-of-school children, particularly street and pavement dwellers.

reaching street kids is a rough business.  they are the hardest kids to serve.  they are expensive.  in a policy world focused on cost pers, they provide the least bang for the buck.  in fact, the indian government finds the task so daunting that they’ve outsourced serving out-of-school children to the ngo sector.

our (or rather door step school’s) solution: a scalable, mobile classroom.  door step school (dss) has already demonstrated good results with two buses in south mumbai over the past six years.  these mobile classrooms are hollowed out buses that have been equipped with basic teaching materials.  no laptops folks.  just innovative pedagogy, a blackboard, and dedicated staff (and students).

why use buses?  why not open new classrooms close to the kids?  three reasons.  first, real estate is expensive, hard to find (commercial real estate is 5th most expensive in world), and (if one rents grade C or slum property) comes with ridiculous, cost prohibitive, prepayment requirements.  second, child attendance is extremely sensitive to classroom proximity.  even if one could overcome the real estate cost and logistical issues, a bus that goes just one block closer will be more successful in reaching the kids.  finally, the mobile classroom offers a necessary flexibility (in serving street children) that no brick and mortar classroom can provide.

parag, sarada, dennis, does this sound familiar?  but i digress.  i really wanted to write today because i was angered by the response of the indian government.  maybe i shouldn’t have been surprised.

we created a 10-year expansion strategy that would serve over 30,000 street kids using 57 buses and 15 affiliated local education ngos.  the presentation lasted about 10 to 15 minutes.  briefing books were provided.  the response? 

1) can our organization comprised of 4 harvard kids set up a maharashtra education director exchange program so that all of the state directors could study at harvard?

ah yes, highly relevant to the discussion at hand.  but, this did make the secretary look good in front of his direct reports.  sure, secretary, we’ll put you in touch with the k school director of executive education.  next question please…

2) can this expansion plan work outside of mumbai in rural areas and other urban areas in maharashtra? 

we were prepared for this question.  other urban areas, probably.  rural areas, less certain because of a different set of constraints.  but we could explore further…

3) we don’t agree with the number of street children you stated in one of your slides.

now, the meeting started to drift away from us.  we secretly cursed that damn slide.  it was an indictment of the government and they seemed to hate us for it.  the mumbai director of schools started quoting highly inaccurate numbers for the number of children in mumbai and the related number of out of school children.  but it got worse…

the private sector and multilateral representatives at the meeting (who actually liked the plan) tried to steer the conversation away from arguing about how many street kids there are in mumbai (based on any group’s estimates, there are still a lot of kids to help) so that we could focus on the actual expansion strategy.  the directors had no comments on this topic.  their silence meant they would do nothing except say, looks great, let us know how it goes…

we pressed them, asking about meetings, discussions… about being partners on this gig.  they have numerous cng buses that are scheduled for retirement over the next 10 years that could be converted into classrooms.  the mumbai director said, we already are partners.  the street kids can come to the schools we have.  once you help them, we are more than happy to take them and provide them with education.

can anyone believe this response?  maybe you cynics can.  i cannot.  here, a director of education in the largest city in a state that probably has more school age children than the entire US saying that street kids are not my problem.  sure, if they make it to the school, then we can help…

and so, now, one week out, i think a lot about this unruly meeting.  it doesn’t change my view that the summer internship was a success.  the government was just one piece.  we came up with a good plan that was well received by dss, the private sector, and multilaterals.  i learned about indian ngos, government, education, bombay, being an entrepreneur, consulting. 

but, i can’t shake one burning thought… that the indian government has abandoned these kids.  that it fails to recognize a problem.  that it is more worried about the press getting our report than addressing the true problem at hand.  and what use is government if it fails to provide the most basic human rights to ALL its citizens? 

i argue for no revolution, just that elected officials and bureaucrats (in india, and the us) stop looking at their damn reflections in the mirror (how does my hair look?).  acknowledge problems.  take chances.  be problem-solvers, not paper pushers or self-involved ego maniacs.  is this asking too much?  perhaps… so, while the international community is reading friedman books and the indian government is sitting on its laurels, my mind will keep walking down the streets of bombay and hopping over all the street kids just waiting to be trampled by a flattened world.

i don’t really want to end this posting on such an angry note, but want to call attention to discrepancies between the private and public sectors in india.  i read an interesting op ed the other day in the times of india.  the contributer commented that India’s bureaucratic/government infrastructure is a world apart from the amazing private sector that is fueling phenomenal growth.  the government must step up if india is to realize its full potential.  from my brief summer here, this appears true.  cities lack vital infrastructure.  water.  housing.  education.  rural areas also need crucial services typically provided by the government sector in places like the u.s…