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Unsung Heroes
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Gagan Sethi
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Indian Constitution promotes equality and
justice to all, irrespective of caste creed and religion. However there are
instances when there is non-compliance with these highest ideals of the
Constitution, and it is then that men of strength, courage and fairness needs
to step up to ensure that the foundation of the Constitution remains strong.
One such individual is Gagan Sethi: a man who is actively involved in
institutional building, fund raising and promoting social equality and justice
through his work.
Gagan Sethi holds a Masters in Social work from
Maharaja Sayaji Rao University, Baroda and has also interned in behavioural
sciences under the tutelage of Father Heredero. In his twenties, he met Father
Heredero, and it is charismatic personality which implanted the seeds of
institution building in him. He says
that, “Father firmly implanted in me
three fundamental principles, which he himself practiced with rigour. First:
Getting into your team, people better than you or having a skill that you
yourself do not possess. Second: pursuit of excellence in detail. Third:
Dialoguing to the n`th degree” Gagan Sethi still practices these three
principle and attributes his work to these principles.
Armed with these principles and with the
association of Professor Contractor, he started Jan Vikas: a NGO based out of
Ahmedabad , which was started to ensure justice, focusing on giving marginalised
people the opportunity and support to live a life with dignity and equity. It
began to motivate, train youth to start new initiativesfor social
transformation. Gagan Sethi maintains that “to
be effective, organisations should limit themselves to three structural
levels.”
What
started out as a journey for women empowerment, political education and natural
resource management, branched out to other area like human rights, legal education,
social justice, and environmental education.
Gagan Sethi has played a pivotal role in fostering the creation of many
organisations. The challenges in institutional building are a lot but his
abilities of team building and strategic planning has eased the processes. His
model of providing youngsters with fellowships to innovate, experiment and
create organisations in the social sector has reaped dividends. Following the
guidelines of his mentor and his model of fellowships, Kutch Mahila Vikas
Sangathan( KMVS) was formed in the year 1989 under the leadership of Sushma
Iyenger. It was Gagan Sethi who had mentored Sushma.“Sushma Iyengar was one of our first fellowship holders and she made a
mark with her work on KMVS. She was far more creative and precise than what I
can be in many ways.” Says Gagan. KMVS started with promoting handicrafts
of the region but gradually developed into a body to empower the women through
better bargaining of their products. It became a pioneer in the ecological
restoration of the district of Kutch and graduated to improve the status of
women through an integrated approach involving handicrafts, health literacy,
savings and credit. Gagan Sethi through his mentorship, collaborative roles has
helped it to develop into a successful body, even helping them with getting
funds. His model is allowing others to
come forward and choose their areas of work, and implement them successfully.
Gagan Sethi s` working methodologies have been
successful and have led to the creation of17 bodies of national and
international significance. They focus on nurturing organisations at the grass
root level with development professionals. He has an uncanny style of thinking
and organisational development, which have been influenced from his love for
the work of Paulo Freire`s philosophy: a philosophycombining humanism and
Marxism. The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) was started in the year 1994, as a
project of Jan Vikas. CSJ was started to pursue justice and uphold human rights
in the country. CSJ adopts a unique approach by ensuring social justice through
legal awareness, alternate dispute resolution, and challenging laws for not
being sensitive to the needs of the underprivileged. CSJ mainly focuses on
Dalits, women, tribal’s and under trial prisoners.
The biggest challenge encountered by Gagan has
been the 2001 Gujrat earthquake and the 2002 Gujrat riots.“Life changed in the period of 2000-2002. We were sitting on top of one
of the major earthquakes and just finished the basic rehabilitation program,
that there is the communal violence in Gujrat.” Faced with this huge task, his leadership in
this crisis situation stand him apart.“My
biggest challenge came with the earthquake and riots, which was all about
handling volumes with integrity and commitment. With volumes expanding, all our
organisational systems got injured.
Consciously, I outsourced my accounting systems so that nobody could say
that the institution or I made money.”
If transparency is one aspect of his leadership, it is uprightness; even
in difficult times that’s what makes his work even more special.“During the riots, I heard some murmur of
protest and that’s when I called everybody and told them in no uncertain terms,
that if they do not agree with our work, they can leave immediately. I sometimes
took charge and put the institution in a political flux, where everybody had to
follow. I see that when the chips are down, there is no consultation.
Facilitative leadership happens as long as people are in alignment of the
larger vision and political views. When it becomes contingent on institutional
growth, directive leadership has to be used, but sporadically and judiciously.”
The Muzzafarpur riots in August,2013 has been
another blot in the history of the Indian democracy, but what is worse has been
the partisan relief and rehabilitation work carried out by the state government.
There have been instances where people have been displaced from their villages,
but have received no support from the government to help them start afresh
their lives.“Jurisprudence should use
language that is inclusive. When the nation talked about rehabilitation during
rights, we introduced the concept of internally displaced, which has now gained
currency. CSJ is a step away from getting recognition of the United Nations
concept of internally displaced due to ethnic violence in Gujrat.” Gagan Sethi
emphasis that India needs a formal policy to protect and rehabilitate the
internally displaced people.
Gagan Sethi s` strategic thinking is
highlighted in the fact that he focuses on the development of youth by supporting
young professionals with the objective that they will work in an organisation
after two years. This programme named SMILE has received financial support from
many quarters, simply because it’s a programme for development of youth and
correspondingly finding youth for development.
Jan Vikas started based on the ideals of
Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar and as they always talked about social equality for
all sections of people, Gagan Sethi has collaborated with Martin Macwan for
setting up of the Dalit Foundation in New Delhi. It is his sensitivity to the
womens` collectives that has helped them in their upliftment. Dalit foundation
has worked with Dalits from all professional fields and strives to fight
injustice everywhere.
“My skill and competency in training is entirely due to him. All my
training sessions came under most rigorous scanner.”says Gagan referring to his mentor Father Heredero. It is his
intense engagement through dialoguing, be it in training session or
interpersonal dialogues that connect people to him. The compassion, the counselling that he
offers to people are what makes him more approachable to people. Probably this
is one of the virtues which help him to connect well with financers for the
projects. “I believe that trust begets
trust. There`s are exceptions to this principle and we should learn to take the
consequences.”
Gagan Sethi stresses the importance of
governance in organisations. His emphasis is on getting the fundamentals
correct. Transparency and accountability is required and can lead to good governance.
It brings more credibility to institutions. His grass-root level understanding
of the processes has helped him. His advice to the youth is to watch out and
ensure that their organisations are aligned to the external world.His advice to
NGO`s is that they have to work as public institutions. He maintains that “networks cannot e single minded nor have
ideological tensions. For networks to be dynamic, one must allow dissent and
not regimentisation. One has to appreciate diversity.”
Gagan Sethi has worked at the grass-root level
and his clear understanding with strong ethos has fostered the creation of
institutions which are creating ripples in the society. He decided to quit top
organisational position at Jan Vikas, but believes that it is prudent to do so
when one is in prime or when the dip starts. We hope that many more young people follow the
footsteps of Gagan Sethi.
·
Sincere thanks to Gagn Sethi
for his time and help providing the case study on him developed by Dr. Uma
Ramaswamy.
References: The following websites have been accessed to do the
secondary research on Mr. Gagan Sethi
1.
http://centreforsocialjustice.net/2014/01/12/gagan-sethi-at-hearing-on-muzaffarnagar-riot-victims/
10. Dr. Uma Ramaswamy,
(2009).HID Forum . Bangalore.
11. Image Credit: http://media2.intoday.in/indiatoday/images/stories/gagan_sethi-_660_060213011401.jpg
12.
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