Next week ushers in this year’s Maker Faire Africa which celebrates the spirit of African ingenuity, innovation and invention. I recently interviewed one of its founder’s Emeka Okafor for Design Observer: Tinkers, Hackers, Farmer, Crafters. He spoke with conviction of

“the interchange between the emerging global dynamics and local inspiration in Africa. This speaks to a far-reaching conversation in which the questions are posed: How do we regain our creativity? How do we redefine what we mean by a society that is advanced?

He went on to describe the experimental platform which is neither a science fair, conference nor trade show – but which rather values all makers who have uniquely responded to a need with an adaptive sensibility.

“If you place a tinkerer who works on the side of the road next to an Ivy League engineer, dynamics are bound to get interesting. Folks begin to recognize, reassess and remix value… This is something I came to appreciate in curating TEDGlobal in Africa. When you place the biochemist next to the poet or the visual artist next to the physicist, you can rely on synergies springing from their shared curiosity.”

Last year’s MFA featured a potent mix of inventiveness from robotics through to black-smithing and agricultural innovations – punctuated by recycling endeavours and global-local craft mash-ups. The event had it’s own locally fabricated radio station and endearingly analogue black-board blogger, Alfred Sirleaf.
 
This year’s MFA promises another round of multidisciplinary ingenuity. Digital fabrication is set to feature alongside artisanal eyewear. Workshops will share solar technology skills with young people and mobile hacking tips with all ages. The event will also see the African launch of Steve Daniels’ book Making Do: Innovation in Kenya’s Informal Economy. Steve’s rigorously insightful book provides a comprehensive exploration of jua kali – informal artisans who work in industrious clusters across Kenya:
 

“Wandering through winding alleys dotted with makeshift worksheds, one can’t help but feel clouded by the clanging of hammers on metal, grinding of bandsaws on wood and the shouts of workers making sales. But soon it becomes clear that this cacophony is really a symphony of socio-economic interactions that form what is known as the informal economy. In Kenya, engineers in the informal economy are known as jua kali, Swahili for “hot sun”, because they toil each day under intense heat and with limited resources. But despite these conditions, or in fact because of them, the jua kali continuously demonstrate ingenuity and resourcefulness in solving problems…

… Steve Daniels illuminates the dynamics of the sector to enhance our understanding of African systems of innovation… The study examines how the jua kali design, build and manage though theoretical discussions, visualizations of data and stories of successful and struggling entrepreneurs.”

Maker Faire Africa promises to shine a light on a wealth of African talent and turn up the volume on their diverse voices of inventiveness.

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[Images – 1 + 2: From White African's Maker Faire Africa set on Flickr, 3: from the portfolio of C. Kaibiru, 4: cover detail of Steve Daniels' book Making Do]

For much of the year so far I’ve been chipping away on a fascinating project with the government’s Office of Ethnic Affairs. In the pursuit of community-focused insights I’ve guided group discussions with various religious and ethnic groups – including Filipino, Muslim, Hindu, Chinese, Mexican and Colombian. The topic of exploration has been diversity in attitudes and approaches to death, dying and the afterlife – both in the New Zealand context and in countries of origin. Themes have included the lead up to death, body preparation, funeral rituals, customs of remembrance, attitudes to afterlife and surrounding superstitions. Much of the investigation was centered on the uncovering of personal stories which reflect community practice that will contribute to an exhibition and public programmes at the Museum of Wellington later next year.
 

To compliment the group sessions I also sought out the input of a couple of established local funeral directors. They provided insights on the developments in cultural sensitivity within their profession as New Zealand has culturally diversified. I also met with Yakub Khan Tasleem – a Muslim community funeral director who additionally owns a popular Newtown halal butchery. Tasleem spoke of being guided and provided with a brave heart by his Creator to serve other Muslims via his halal services and role as a funeral facilitator. He praised the Wellington City Council in their willingness to support local communities to honour their dead in their own ways. He reiterated the description I’d received in our group sessions of perfume being applied to the parts of the body of the deceased which would usually touch the ground in prayer. The forehead, nose, palms, knees, shins and feet are all anointed in preparation for the ultimate act of submission to the Creator.
 

In search of a more ethnographic-oriented angle I was keen to talk to people in a relevant context of their actual lives while retaining respect for the sensitivity surrounding our topic. I found my chance when I discovered the free monthly bus to Makara Cemetery which is run by the good folk at Wilson Funeral Home and Harbour City Funerals. The bus takes an ambling route around southern and eastern suburbs before passing through the city then heading out to Makara. Many of the passengers join the journey every month to visit the graves of their dearly departed – with some having been every month since the service launched 18 years ago.

On board I encountered Samoan Catholics, Greek Orthodox widows, a fifth generation Chinese descendant and Polish refugee widows. Many rich stories emerged from this vehicle which brings together a vibrant mix of characters and cultures. Once at their destination passengers are dropped off at relevant areas of the sprawling cemetery where they have around an hour to pay their respects. As I moved between zones I noted the difference in graves from the simple Muslim markers to the more ostentatious Greek tombstones complete with special alcoves for oil-burning candles and Chinese graves which sometimes featured incense holders. Visitors performed various rituals respective to their faiths before we all re-boarded the bus and returned to the city. More stories unfolded – closer to the subjects of departed loved ones and cultural cues of remembrance.
 

“As you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields – watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.” – Kahlil Gibran

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Last week Design Observer featured my article India’s Epic Head Count:

“More than 1 billion people of diverse cultures, languages and religions are united by India’s national borders. Between 2010 and 2011, the country’s census will not only count and categorize them by gender, religion and occupation, but also probe their access to technology, toilets and personal transport. In a monumental orchestration, aided by a newly designed census form, government departments, local councils and 2.5 million census collectors will continue the increasingly complex national effort to tally India’s inhabitants, which it has conducted every decade since the late 1800s.”

With challenges posed by linguistic variation and literacy levels, the census collectors play a vital role. Officially known as enumerators but unofficially as census-wallas, they record all responses on forms that are later collected, scanned and read via character recognition software. [continued...]

I first became intrigued by the process on reading of Deepa Krishnan’s census experience insights. I poked around a bit further and became fascinated by the scale and complexity involved. I also discovered that my former colleague Rupesh Vyas from India’s National Institute of Design developed the new forms and the article on Design Observer goes on to describe their efficiencies and user-centered orientation. But of course the difficulties faced by census enumerators are not all able to be solved by the form alone…
 
An official marks a house after collecting census details. From Reuters via the Irish Times

Willingness to be counted and questioned in detail has been varied, with the initial phase
requiring 35 questions to be answered. Some census collectors reported that it was easier to gather such details from the less well off. “In a slum, everyone is eager to be counted and they all want to make sure they are not left out if any card or official document is being distributed.” Meanwhile I was told by one friend in Mumbai that she was impressed by the peaceful and professional approach of her enumerators yet was surprised that her affluent neighbour refused to be questioned, citing the flimsy excuse that she was monitoring her son’s study for exams.

Some people have mentioned that they faced judgement or hesitation by enumerators over issues such as live-in romantic relationships and the retaining of maiden names by married women. While India may be changing, attitudes amongst form-fillers may pose barriers to accurate accounting of some developments – though it is expected that such misrepresent- ation would be well under 1%. Elsewhere, I wonder how things went with transgender citizens (hijras) who were granted specific status by the Electoral Commission last year but not by the National Registry who govern census collecting.

Enumerators nationwide have to noted a number of further challenges. In areas such as Himachal Pradesh “road connectivity remains poor and enumerators walk hours to reach scattered hamlets atop high mountains, close to the snowline.” Recollection of exact age is a common problem. Sometimes details get so confusing that censuswallas end up using their erasers more than their pencils. Irrelevant complaints may be loaded onto the enumerator who is seen as just as just another government bureaucrat – prompting the rehearsed reply
“I am here just to count people, not problems.” But my favourite would be the account from Assam where the census collector asked:

“Age?”
“I think I am around 65.”
“And your wife?…”
“She was about five years younger than me when we got married.
I think she is still five years younger to me.”

 
Image from India Struggles to Count It’s Millions, via Agence France-Presse.
Plus their video news report, of the same name, makes for interesting viewing.

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Earlier this year I checked out a robust, sustainable urban transport strategy supported by digital technology and user-centric design which earned the global Sustainable Transport Award from Washington. Ahmedabad’s Janmarg (People’s Way) initiative incorporates dedicated bus corridors amongst other interventions to prioritize multi-modal, eco-smart transport options to serve a population fast approaching 6 million. By analyzing current and emerging local mobility patterns and aspirations alongside concerns for accessibility, safety, energy efficiency and connectivity – urban planners were able to adapt the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) model which had transpired from developments in Curitiba and Bogota. Most importantly its impact is being felt at street-level in a city which encompasses both tradition and modernity.
 

Ahmedabad is India’s seventh largest city and fifth richest (ahead of Delhi and Mumbai), providing Gujarat with a thriving centre of commerce while hosting a large student population. Like most Indian cities its roads are becoming more strained as an increasing number of private vehicles compete for space with buses, trucks, rickshaws, pedestrians, hawkers, bicycles, cows, camels and the occasional elephant. While some areas of the city flourish via industries such as pharamaceuticals, textiles and construction – others flounder – and all are exposed to mounting levels of pollution. Faced with such issues the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation approached one of the city’s prominent tertiary institutions, the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT), to explore and propose solutions.
 

Consulting architect Meghal Arya applauds the breadth of the planning considerations, which accounted for users, providers and operators. “Janmarg is likely to raise the whole city’s value,” she says, “but best of all it raises expectations about civic services in India.” Arun Amrutla (above), an Ahmedabadi man who has been crippled since birth, seems to agree. “Its so easy for people like me to get on and off the Janmarg buses,” he says. This kind of system, he continues, can truly change people’s lives — especially those who are physically and financially challenged. “Janmarg gives us access to parts of the city that we couldn’t access before — for education, employment or enjoyment — so it’s more our city now than it ever has been.”

Read my full coverage of Ahmedabad’s Janmarg initiative on Places (Forum of Design for the Public Realm) at Design Observer.
 

Bus operators Pancal Kirti and Jitendra Patel – who received yoga classes to encourage physical resilience and solidarity as part of their training.
 

Eight year old passenger Rudri Mehta travels with her mother to visit popular recreational spot Kankaria Lake.
 
Bus shelters, designed by Arya Architects, employ passive solar design.
 

Janmarg includes cycling and walking lanes. These pose challenges given that they have not previously been common in Ahmedabad but awareness building initiatives aim to shift attitudes and behaviours in the city.
 

The service attracts a wide range of passengers from youth to the elderly, factory owners to tribal migrants. Many cite ease of use and timely arrival as key drivers for using the service over alternate modes of transport.
 

Well over two hundred religious structures were relocated by negotiation to make way for bus lanes. Three, including this one, remain – constituting a kind of tribute to enduring tradition within progressive urban development.
 

Image by Michael Peron, La Rochelle, France

Recently I collaborated on a project with Indian-based designer Ishan Khosla as the research co-ordinator for an exhibition under the working title Sweeping Change: Transforming Attitudes Towards the Humble Jharu (Broom) which featured last week at Delhi’s prestigious Gandhi Smriti. As we gathered information we begun to appreciate that each jharu has a unique story to tell – from where it’s fibres were sourced, how it was skillfully crafted, who’s hands have grasped it in service and what corners of the nation it has swept. The iconic jharu weaves its way through India’s social, cultural and economic fabric – from cultivation to craft, selling to sweeping.
 

Skilled craftsmen at work in a bustling jharu factory at Delhi’s Lahori Gate. 
Images by Ishan Khosla

On the ground in Delhi, Ishan and his team team interviewed and photographed local broom makers and businesses. Broom making constitutes a specialised craft which provides an essential everyday item – fusing utility with artisanal technique. From micro-enterprise to large-scale industry, the scope of jharu production is as vibrant as it is varied.
 
Selling brooms in Jamalpur, Ahmedabad. Image by yours truly

Vendors, who are predominantly mobile, ply the streets with single jharu varieties or colourful selections of every imaginable sweeping device displayed on a single bicycle. It is estimated that they facilitate the majority of local trade in brooms – reaching far flung rural villages and dense urban neighbourhoods. With their trademark calls to beckon buyers they contribute to a culture of distribution which is liberated from fixed locations – playing a vital role in last-mile delivery of the humble jharu.
 
“Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.” – Mahatma Gandhi. Images by Navroze Contractor via Arna-Jharna, Rajasthan

Those who sweep provide Indians with the pleasure of clean homes, schools, offices and streets, though often fail to gain respect. Sweepers play an important role in both civic and private life yet perform one of the most under-valued services in India. Often a caste-based occupation, sweeping duties range from government employees performing municipal duties to informal workers going from house to house cleaning toilets. Elsewhere sweeping is an elevated task such as in many temples where the inner sanctum can only be cleaned by the chief priest – using the finest of natural plant fibres or peacock feathers. 
 
Image courtesy of MP Ranjan from the National Institute of Design archives

The sweeping of homes, streets, temples, mosques and beyond requires a variety of jharu of nuanced characteristics. Various materials yield multiple manifestations to meet this diverse array of settings. The scope of natural materials from which most brooms are created reveal a rich biodiversity and further specifics about its intended usage. Size, shape and texture tell us much about the broom’s function and site of use – whether it be indoors or outdoors, public or domestic.

The Hindu goddess Shitala Mata by Kailash Raj, via Exotic India Art

The jharu’s symbolism surrounding cleansing and cleanliness is evident from the realms of religion to sites of protest. The image of a broom can incite a range of responses from reverence to controversy. Shitala Mata, the Bengali Goddess of Disease, sweeps away ailments with her broom. The Dispeller of Suffering – her benevolence is sought by countless devotees who seek the purity she provides. The jharu further represents spiritual cleansing and is associated with the goddess Lakshmi. It takes on added significance at the Diwali festival during which homes are meticulously swept to welcome in the new year – with Lakshmi supposedly entering the cleanest houses first.
 

“If we do not take the broom in our hands we cannot make our nation clean”
– Mahatma Gandhi. Image courtesy of the Gandhi Smriti

Gandhi firmly believed that all work was dignified work and held sweepers and scavengers in high regard in his support of abandoning the cultural concept of untouchability. Even as a child in Rajkot he boldly declared “I don’t think our sweeper or anybody is untouchable. Is he in any way different from me?” he asked his mother in defense of his friend and family servant, Uka.  Much later his three symbols of revolution became prayer, the spinning wheel and the broom – representing inner strength, productivity and social equality. He further acknowledged the broom’s symbolism declaring that “prayer is like a broomstick meant to cleanse one’s soul.”
 

Bhopal protestors. Image by Ascanio Vitale, Rome

Brooms have also served as a symbol for protest – significantly against the company behind the Bhopal disaster. In 2002 activists brandished donated brooms while chanting Jharu Maro Dow Ko! (Beat Dow with a Broom!) as a way of telling Dow Chemicals to clean up its act while conveying the ultimate insult of being hit with a broom. The potent symbolism of the broom has seen it featured in further protests from Manipur to Delhi’s India Gate on a diverse range of issues.
 
Images by Ishan Khosla (left) and yours truly (right)

The jharu exhibition was a part of the launch of the Jiyo! initiative by Rajeev Sethi’s Indian Heritage Foundation, supported by the World Bank.

“Less profitability has been driving craftsmen away from their traditional jobs. There is demand for their products, only that they need to be marketed and managed. Just like the Amul revolution has made farmers partners in dairy business, if craftsmen are made partners in the profit and if there is proper management, the trade will once again revive.” – Rajeev Sethi via Times of India

Clearly Jiyo! holds some hope in forging an identity that goes beyond cricket and Bollywood possibly signaling the arrival of the Swadeshi brand of the new century.
 
Image taken in Ahmedabad’s Walled City – by Sana Kadri, Mumbai

The humble jharu passes through many hands on its journey from field to floor. As we reflect on its power to clear the path before us, let us also consider the many who have been part of its story – and indeed those who have featured in a myriad of traditional craft stories across the nation.

Behind the scenes: A vast amount of information needed to be collated and filtered within a daunting timeframe as part of our research which required historical, social, material, and economic detail. I took the coordination of research in my stride from afar in New Zealand – grateful for the committed eyes and ears I had on the ground via Ishan’s studio and some great leads from the Broom Project by Rajasthan’s Desert Museum. Via a series of Google Documents our dispersed team were able to quickly assemble and arrange findings, Flickr enabled us to track down some incredible imagery, Facebook facilitated some quick-fire input around relevant terms in various Indian languages and we found it useful to compile findings spanning the nation onto a Google Map. Through employing basic cloud technology and social media platforms the distance from Wellington to Delhi and beyond didn’t seem so great after all.

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Late last year I was researching at Mumbai’s extensive Dharavi slum – investigating residents’ management of irregular and unpredictable incomes as part of a global study co-ordinated by Helsinki-based Niti Bhan. Some of my field observations and musings were posted on our research blog but as it has now been closed I thought I’d feature one of them here – relating to the merits of local micro-savings schemes.

Prema Salgaonkar (above) has been working with Mahila Milan for over 20 years and now heads a group of local facilitators of a daily savings scheme for Dharavi residents. Mahila Milan means “women together” and provides a vehicle for the empowerment of women via leadership roles and advocacy alongside its pivotal daily savings collection. Prema visits around 450 households each day, of which a third will deposit anything between Rs 5 to 200, with almost all households banking something each week. Such an initiative is ideally suited to the irregular nature of earnings at the base of the pyramid which we have been widely discussing during our research.
 

The deposits from a number of collectives are formally banked but rather than paying interest Mahila Milan provides community and emergency support in a transparent manner. For many, without this daily visit which both incentivises and protects savings, surplus cash would not even be conceived of – let alone put aside. Savings are readily accessible and members of the scheme can apply for credit if required – though this takes a distant back seat to focus on savings. When loans are requested the local Mahila Milan leaders will assess the need and ability to repay, possibly consulting with neighbours as to the borrower’s situation. Repayment terms are negotiated on a case-by-case basis around the borrower’s earning patterns, with consideration given to the maintenance of some savings alongside repayments. Loans –usually for up to Rs 500 at 2% interest – have helped with school fees, medical bills, home improvements and entrepreneurial start-ups from tailoring services to coconut vending.
 

Beginning in Mumbai in the eighties, initially Mahila Milan had many more illiterate members and developed a system whereby coloured squares of paper would be exchanged for deposits and kept by the saving member in a plastic bag: red for one rupee, yellow for two, green for three and so on. This way members could always check how much money they had access to and plan accordingly. Now this system has been largely disbanded and replaced with passbooks which members were proud to show us and explain the context of various peaks in savings and withdrawal. Currently Mahila Milan constitutes a networked federation of nationwide woman’s collectives encompassing 60, 000 women.
 

The system is not just about collecting money but also about daily contact which deepens the understanding of various issues facing Dharavi residents. Contributing to a consensus of community priorities, this information is often passed on to other support groups in the area such as the local community council (panchayat) plus used to inform a number of Mahila Milan initiatives. One of our informants (above) who used the scheme conveyed that even on the days when she has nothing to deposit that its was reassuring to be visited by a trusted outsider with sound financial knowledge and that she sometimes used the opportunity to discuss issues such as how rising food prices were affecting those beyond her own neighbourhood. She notes that watching her savings grow has allowed her to start imagining and planning a better future for her family – with her mother and sister also active members in the scheme. 

We were told of numerous success stories like the woman who saved towards buying a second-hand sewing machine which allowed her daughter to leave a gruelling job at a local garment factory to start her own now-flourishing dressmaking business. Another woman with six children and an alcoholic husband saved Rs 5-10 a day till she had Rs 5000 with which she bought a machine to process heavy duty plastic for recycling and now boasts a much higher standard of living for herself and her family. Others access their savings on a short term basis to counter income fluctuations – still signalling a heightened life standard. And significantly most continue with their savings schemes while servicing their loans. 

Micro-credit has been commanding a fair amount of attention surrounding poverty alleviation of late – including voices of caution as have featured in our research discussion. Mahila Milan seeks to strengthen financial assets primarily through savings-led services with micro-loans being offered as a secondary and complimentary service. Last year’s brief article Putting the Microsavings in Microfinance from the New York Times makes the highly relevant point that “only some poor people will benefit from the chance to borrow, but almost all will benefit from the chance to save.”

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Mobile Enterprise + Mobile Phone

Back here in New Zealand I’ve just been taking my kitchen cupboards apart trying to find a small fitting that seems to have dislodged itself from my pressure cooker – rendering it redundant. Has left me pining for the roving repair-men of India whom I know could sort out my conundrum in a flash.
 

Come to think of it I’d also like it if these guys graced my neighbourhood with their presence sometime soon as I have an imminent guest so would like an extra pillow and my vaccum cleaner’s been playing up so I just need a cheap broom to get me through to when I manage to have it fixed.
 

And the gas bottle needs changing soon so would be good if I could SMS this pair to drop by and sort things out. Plus with all the great tomatoes in season I need my knives sharpened so would be timely if the other dude rolled up round now as well.
 

India’s micro-entrepreneurs contribute to a culture of distribution which is liberated from fixed locations playing a vital role in conveniently providing items of regular consumption at relatively affordable prices. Not limited to informal enterprise, such delivery networks are also utilised by corporates from utility providers to Coca Cola – encompassing both motorised and non-motorised options to service challenging locations from densely populated urban neighbourhoods to rural villages.

Mumbai entrepreneur Deepa Krishnan (who oriented me for my recent Dharavi ethnographic research) comments:

“… Indian consumers are probably the most demanding in the world. We want – no, we insist – on superior service, tailored to our needs, at little or no cost. This of course, is a daunting prospect for anyone supplying anything to the Indian market. But sellers who can understand this mindset and who can tailor their products and services to it, are the ones who will succeed and thrive.”

My buddies over at Box Design + Research in Delhi partnered with John Thackara a while back to compile a rich-media archive of bicycle dependent commerce: Velowala – for the Biennial of International Design at Saint Etienne. [Illustration by Tenzing Dakpa] Alongside a diverse collection of examples they comment:

“The interesting thing about being on a bicycle is that it immediately frees you as an entrepreneur from the shackles of immovable real estate. Velocommerce is all about the mobility of property, and it challenges notions of ownership and private capital.
It is special because it exists at the intersection of entrepreneurship, mobility, sustainability, grassroots innovation, cultures, local economies and decentralized,
last-mile service delivery.”

In the not-for-profit realm Worldbike highlight how bikes can transform lives – connecting the poor to markets, schools and clinics via their Mobility for Good mantra. Of particular interest is their project at the Kibera slum in Nairobi to develop bike-based technologies and business models that empower local entrepreneurs to earn a living while simultaneously helping address the local garbage problem. Partnering with UN Habitat and local support groups they are devising a system to collect and transport waste from individual dwellings to central deposit sites, where it can be sorted for recycling and disposal. Elsewhere ColaLife proposes that Coca Cola open their distribution channels to transport compact ‘aidpods’ containing items like water purification tablets and oral rehydration salts. Through piggy-backing on Coke’s extensive mobile networks in less affluent countries, ColaLife would aim to contribute to a reduction in infant mortality, improve maternal health and combat prevalent disease. [Images via Worldbike + ColaLife]
 

But of course there are ways of impacting issues of poverty via commercial endeavors too. Indian industrial heavyweights Godrej look set to use mobile enterprise networks to reach their customers at the base of the pyramid with their affordable, compact refrigerator. Others entering this space of for-profit solutions aimed at meeting needs of the economically challenged are Tata with their Swach water filter and the French multi-national Schneider with its domestic lighting systems under the In-Diya brand. Given that these companies will need to consider the entire product ecosystem in ensuring access to goods, fittings and service of their offerings – one would imagine they will all be including mobile enterprise in their supply chains to reach customers in both dense and dispersed locations. [Image credit: Outlook – India's New Retailers]
 

You can check out more images on my Mobile Enterprise set on Flickr. Meanwhile back at home… I’m looking for a new craft project that gets me off the computer – maybe a visit from this guy could help?

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A quick spot of cross-posting from my recent interview with Anil Gupta which featured on Design Observer this week.

Anil Gupta serves as senior faculty at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) from where he champions the recognition, respect and reward of those who are knowledge-rich yet economically poor.

Alongside consulting global development agencies he formed the Honey Bee Network in the late eighties which nurtures and cross-pollinates grassroots knowledge, creativity and innovation. Via various platforms stemming from the network – scouting, documentation, validation and dissemination of innovations are pursued while seeking to catalyse knowledge into feasible products and sustainable enterprises.
 

Meena Kadri
How would you describe your mission across your many initiatives?

Anil Gupta
To enhance the inherent creativity of grassroots innovators, inventors and eco-preneurs while exploring a new paradigm for poverty alleviation that celebrates inclusive development. We focus on devising a knowledge network from village to government level while overcoming the constraints posed by language, literacy and locality. We also facilitate the documentation and cross-pollination of traditional knowledge across India.

Meena Kadri
How do you see these endeavors playing a role in reducing poverty?

Anil Gupta
Most models of development are centered on what the poor don’t have rather than what they have. Some position the poor at the bottom of the economic pyramid, but this does not equate to a lack of knowledge, values and social networks. I prefer to see the poor as a provider than a market — with their limited material resources driving knowledge-intensive, informal innovation. Through providing incubation and development support, patent and intellectual-property-rights assistance, marketing advice and microventure funding, we seek to support the creativity that already exists at the grassroots.

Read the complete interview at Design Observer.
 

Mitti Cool cookware by Mansukhbhai Prajapati, from Gujarat
Gas-powered iron by K Linga Brahman, from Andra Pradesh
Pressure-cooker coffee maker by Mohammed Rozadeen, from Bihar

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Earlier this month I spent time in Delhi with my old pal Arti Sandhu, putting up our exhibition Overlap at the Mocha Arthouse. Arti and I have been intersecting across the globe for a decade now – in New Zealand, India, Hong Kong and the US. Sharing a fondness for hand-rendered, vernacular artforms, we conceived the show around our varied perspectives of Indianess – touching on the desi and diasporic, the traditional and typographic alongside explorations of language and locality.
 

My own work included two series which I designed and had executed by sign-writers in Ahmedabad and exhibited previously at the Glasgow School of Art. The English of India series came from noting that visitors to India are so often surprised by the amount of English one encounters – on the street, peppered through films and even in remote villages. I aimed to capture the localisation of the global spread of English through the flair of local sign-writing.
 

The second series, Bollywood Soul – A Vernacular Walk of Fame playfully created a set which displays divas and heralds heros of national cinema, employing local portraiture and typographic styles commonly used to decorate rickshaws. I collaborated with a local legend who earns his living painting rickshaw mudflaps from his roadside ’studio’ – and committed his brush to rubber shoe-soles for the project.
 

Arti grew up in an Army family which meant she covered a lot of ground in India from a young age. A love of drawing and customising her barbie to look more Indian led her study fashion at NIFT in Delhi and later in the UK. Since then she has lectured globally and is currently an assistant professor of Fashion Design in Chicago. Her artworks explore identity and migration and provide insightful perspectives on the eccentricities of the modern and mundane in India and abroad.
 

On annual visits home to India Arti began to notice the idiosyncratic qualities of everyday life which she had previously taken in her stride. She drew on these observations to create the ‘A’ is for Akshar series in which she re-visits her motherland and language while providing a visual commentary on India through the lens of a migrant.
 

Exploring cultural baggage and excess baggage, Arti’s Mahila Moments series is inspired by Madhubani folk art. Here she delves into the dilemmas of modern day India, fashion and migration with a love for line, pattern and repetition. Reminiscent of Ganjifa playing cards, the series crosses borders of locality and globalisation in an interplay of what Indian womanhood has come to mean at home and further afield.

Included in the exhibition was a large format poster by New Zealand-based graphic designer and typographer Anton Hart. A few years back he landed up in Bombay on a work sabbatical. Like many before him and many to come, he was smitten. But the touristy tabernacles of Agra and Rajasthan were not what caught his eye. Instead he was enraptured by the truck painters of Bombay and farther afield. His Horn Please typeface and ornaments are a tribute to their flamboyant creativity.

The show Overlap: Intersections of Desi and Diasporic is hosted by the good folk at Box Design & Research and will be up at Delhi’s Mocha Arthouse, DLF Promenade, Vasant Kunj through March, 2010.

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One can find ample instances of mobile phones enhancing the lives of those on low and unpredictable incomes at the base of the pyramid across the world. Today I came across a small yet active example of the advantage of mobile connectivity in the context of my current research endeavors at Dharavi in Mumbai.

Jan Mohammed runs a knife-selling and knife-sharpening enterprise, which he operates from his bicycle, to service the Dharavi-Mahim-Sion area. He conducts business by going door to door in these neighbourhoods and often parks up in one of the busy marketplaces during evenings. Since buying a second-hand mobile phone he has been able to attract the business of local restaurants and caterers who provide bulk sharpening work and have become regular clients via the accessibility his phone assures.

The aspect he likes best about his phone is the prepaid payment method. Having a wife and five children back at his village in Uttar Pradesh means that he makes frequent calls home – but when he is low on money and hasn’t topped up his phonecard he can still receive calls ensuring business. In fact he had just last week paid to replace his knife-sharpening grinder so had no money left for phone credit, yet was still able to receive a lucrative call from a wedding caterer to sharpen 75 knives.
 

Knife-wallas elsewhere in Dharavi who conduct business without mobile phones.

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Tuned-In