From the category archives:

specific

OpenIDEO: Better Together

November 22, 2010

“That OpenIDEO thing is great isn’t it?” My mother, approaching 80, discovered Google Buzz a few months back and has been following me on Twitter from there. Via one of my tweets, she had a look around OpenIDEO and was fascinated by the scope of inspiration and global collaboration. As a doctor she has always been somewhat in the dark about what I do for a living but from following my Twitter links she’s started to get the idea. “It’s about design and people and making the world a better place, right?” she offered as a perspective on my professional pursuits.

So it was helpful when I announced recently that I had a contract with IDEO as a Community Manager on OpenIDEO, that she already knew what it was. OpenIDEO is a place where people design better together for social good. It’s an online platform for creative thinkers: the seasoned designer and the new guy who just signed on, the art student and the MBA, the active participant and the curious lurker. This diversity makes up the creative guts of OpenIDEO. And the best part is it’s constantly in beta – so the platform continues to evolve over time.

After a challenge is posted on OpenIDEO, the three development phases – inspiration, concepting, and evaluation – are put into action. All resulting concepts generated are shareable, remix-able, and reusable in a similar way to Creative Commons. Participation is incentivised through the Design Quotient (DQ) which measures users contributions. Collaborative behaviour is encouraged through features like the Build Upon function. Challenge topics have ranged from ways in which affordable education can be delivered in the developing world to how kids’ awareness of the benefits of fresh food can be raised. Even the randomised OpenIDEO logo was designed through the challenge process.

Just now we’ve got two challenges open. The Sanitation Challenge is in conjunction with IDEO fieldwork in Ghana – and asks how human waste management and sanitation can be improved in low-income communities. The Innovation Challenge seeks to set an agenda for the upcoming i20 Summit of global innovation leaders. Come over and join us – because creativity loves company.

Selection of my OpenIDEO contributions:
Story Telling on Wheels (Winning Concept)
Innovating *With, Not For* Communities (Winning Agenda Concept)
Growing Knowledge (Concept)
Posters Made of Soap (Inspiration)
Making Policy Public (Inspiration)

{ 0 comments }

Life’s Inevitable Transition II

October 31, 2010

I’ve been continuing my work on the riveting Death and Diversity project between the Office of Ethnic Affairs and the Wellington Museums Trust. Following up on earlier investigation with various ethnic and religious groups on attitudes and approaches to death, dying and the afterlife – I’ve more recently met with members of Jewish, Hindu, Mexican and Iraqi Christian communities. We have continued to focus on themes including the lead up to death, body preparation, funeral rituals, customs of remembrance, attitudes to afterlife and surrounding superstitions – to culminate in an exhibition and series of public programmes in Wellington later next year.

Assyrians constitute a distinct ethnic group indigenous to the Middle East who traditionally speak Aramaic and practice Christianity. Assyrian families started coming to Wellington initially as refugees from Iraq in the eighties and nineties. Yooneh Henoo, above, has the task of composing and performing chants of lament (jnanyatha) for local funerals. She shared with us a particularly moving story about a five year old boy in Iraq, with New Zealand-based relatives, who was kidnapped during the Iran-Iraq conflict then cut into pieces and incorrectly buried. Yooneh sung for him here in Wellington, affirming the belief that children rise directly to heaven:

“Tell all of the gentle men and beautiful women that I am going to the heavenly kingdom. Tell my mother not to cry. I have not sinned. I am like a bird and will fly from this world.”

Image by Zsoldos Szabolcs from Flickr

The liberal Jewish group I spoke to provided rich and comprehensive insights of both local, Israeli and diasporic customs. They mentioned the common practice of leaving visitation stones at the graves of loved ones. These assert the permanence of memory for the deceased. They also described the ceremonial washing of the dead body which is done under a continual flow of water. A rabbi visiting from Israel mentioned that this is a meditative experience in which the water forms a cyclic link to amniotic fluid – closing the chapter of the body and opening the chapter of the soul.

Chicano artist Willie Franco ran a sugar skull decorating workshop at the Museum of Wellington City & Sea in the lead up to the Mexican Day of the Dead (Dia de Los Muertos). Skull (calavera) imagery is a ubiquitous part of the annual celebration which honours the deceased. Children, adults and even skilled cake decorators joined the workshop and I noted there was much licking of fingers! Participants had the option of contributing their decorated skulls to the altar being prepared at the museum.

I was also invited to a Hindu Vedic ceremony, performed to ensure the well-being of departed souls, for the father of one of our research participants. I was particularly taken by the pavithram ring worn by the priests, made of holy kusha grass, to keep their hands ritually pure. The ring takes a particular form for ceremonies associated with death.

jaathasya hi dhruvo mr.thyur dhr.uvam janma mr.thasya cha
thasmaad aparihaarye’rthe’ na thvam sochithum-arhasi
For death is certain to one who is born – to one who is dead, birth is certain;
therefore, thou shalt not grieve for what is unavoidable. – Bhagavad Gita

{ 4 comments }

Twitter, Hip-Hop & Smoke-Freestyle

September 30, 2010

A while back I was asked to contribute ideas on spreading the smokefree message to New Zealand youth via the awesome Smoking: Not Our Future platform. Noting that they already had an active social media following and a focus on the local music scene, I threw in the idea of a Twitter rap competition to engage youth to co-create positive health messages.

Collaborating with Transmit Media-Creative, the TwitSpit Competition was devised – inviting participants to freestyle/rap their smokefree attitudes via Twitter. The 140-character constraint was reduced even further by the requirement to include the #twitspit hashtag. Judging was done by local hip-hop legend, MC Juse1, who also created the graffiti artwork which branded the competition. The winner scooped an iPhone, with a slew of music-oriented prizes also up for grabs to those willing to spill their skills.

Winning tweet:

@ohhhSunday! you’re killing yourself but it doesn’t end there/
because it also affects all the people that care #twitspit

Highlights:

@DropNutsDean No more banter, Listen to this stanza/
If we lose the battle against tobacco, we will lose the war against cancer #twispit

@geekyORANGEfool: pull out that smoke and will anybody kiss you?
cause when you start smoking your love life’s gonna be an issue #twitspit

@DropNutsDean to coax/all those who smoke/heres a flowed note/
i don’t care if u burn… but i mind if u smoke #twitspit

And more fresh cuts from the prolific @DropNutsDean

… the only thing I smoke is MCs who test me…
… yo smokin dont just result in coughin/it results in coffins
… quit getting thru tar… like a cement mixer
… if you don’t want your ash kicked, the butt stops here

[Images by Transmit Media-Creative]

{ 0 comments }

Excreta, Et Cetera I

September 13, 2010

I was recently invited to participate as an external advisor, from here in New Zealand, on an extensive research project currently being conducted in India. The exploration is focused on sanitation in low-income urban India and has been dubbed The Potty Project.

The study entails a user-centered examination of behaviours, experiences and attitudes to existing modes of sanitation in a variety of selected slums across India. This is expected to highlight specific opportunities for innovation which might include business model, design, technology and/or communication interventions.

The comprehensive research endeavor is being conducted by the dynamic bunch over at the multidisciplinary Delhi-based innovation consultancy Quicksand. Their focus on user-centered design principles has attracted assignments from Google, IDEO, and the United Nations Development Programme. They’re big on participatory methods and the use of visual aids for research. And best of all for me (being so far way from the action) they are smooth users of Tumblr, Vimeo, Flickr and Twitter – to share images, video, methodological musings, interim analysis and anecdotal interludes – both from the field and back in the office. Much of this flows through The Potty Project blog and occasionally we talk more detailed sh*t (literally) between the Quicksand team and various global advisors via Skype. I get the short straw being out on a limb in terms of time zones – sorry guys if I get incoherent by 4am in the morning!

While rigorous research is being done to summarise the key impact parameters, sanitation spectrum and slum topologies – as always there are some peripheral wee gems that are observed along the way. The images above highlight an informal solution for soap dispensing.

Quicksand’s services span research, film-making, product development, exhibition/experience design, education and beyond – but here’s a quick taste from a couple of their other projects in the sanitation sector:

User Experience Research for Safe Water Strategies in Base of the Pyramid Markets.

The Ripple Effect Film. Quicksand’s documentation became an important medium for IDEO and Acumen Fund to demonstrate the value of design thinking in driving issues pertaining to social development and impact.

[All images via Quicksand and The Potty Project]

{ 2 comments }

Amplifying African Ingenuity

August 16, 2010

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.

[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]

{ 0 comments }

Life’s Inevitable Transition I

August 2, 2010

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

{ 4 comments }

One Billion and Counting

July 4, 2010

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.

{ 0 comments }

The People’s Way: Enhanced Urban Mobility

April 28, 2010

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.

{ 2 comments }

Sweeping Change

April 7, 2010

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.

{ 1 comment }

Women Together: Incentivising Savings

March 24, 2010

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 five 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.”

Related articles:
Dharavi Research Image Selection (Flickr)
Mobile Enterprise + Mobile Phone

{ 1 comment }

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →