bubble wrapped may 2011
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Bubble Wrapped is a platform for social causes, non-profit organisations and corporate social responsibility programmes that endeavour to protect planet Earth and all those that inhabit it.TRANSCRIPT
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Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
4
CONTENTSBubblewrapped May 2011
THE TIPPING POINT
08 MINOR WORKERS, MAJOR CONCERNS
14 MERCHANDISING CHANGE
18 THE FACE OF CHANGE
22 C FOR?
28 REASON TO LAUGH
30 THE UNSUNG VOICES
34 WATER IDEA
40 HEALING THE ENVIRONMENT
Child labour, shining India's ugly little secret,
remains its most persistent social evil.
Guilt-free shopping at Creative Handicrafts.
Presenting The Rainbow Warriors of Chennai.
Looking into India's 'carbon' future.
Protsahan makes you laugh for a good cause.
Delhi's Music Basti is hitting all the right notes for their
underprivileged children.
Pune-based Watershed Organisation Trust is walking the
path of self-sustainability
VerGo Pharma is setting an example for its peers in
environment-friendly practices.
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THE GREEN TONE
B+
THE CORPORATE PITCH
44 THE BEST TIMES, THE WORST TIMESPAINTING'S ON THE WALL
The Smart Manager's Managing Editor, Tanmoy Goswami,
gives us a dose of ethics in Corporate Social Responsibility.
EDITOR
DESIGNER
CONTRIBUTORS
Chetna
Guru Munishwar
Aditi Mukherjee
Akhil Sood
Anushree Chatterjee
Mark Menezes
Rachel Lopez
Saniya Surana
Sheetal Paknikar
Tanmoy Goswami
March 2011 – Photo Credits
We would like to thank Wikimedia Commons
and Siddhartha Lammata for this month's cover image.
10
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Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
5
June 11 is World Day Against Child
Labour. But in the last two months
alone, India's news papers have
reported on the story of 10-year-old
Moin, a Delhi servant who was
overworked, often starved, branded
with an iron when he made a mistake,
and eventually beaten to death for
soiling his pants after an upset
stomach. In the same city, 26 children,
all under 14, who were made to work
in embroidery looms and roadside
restaurants, were rescued. They had
been forced into badly-ventilated
rooms, given less than adequate
nutrition and made to work long hours
with no breaks. In Bangalore, a rescue
team found 14 children, aged between
10 and 15, who were forced into
handling boiling vats of oil in
confectionery factories. The kids were
beaten, made to live inside the filthy
factory, work for most of the day and
MINOR WORKERS, MAJOR CONCERNS Author: Rachel Lopez
Photographer: Abhishek Mishra
Photographer: Solar Shakti
Photographer: Ekabhishek
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
8
In many cases children are forced to
handle their own household's chores
like cooking, cleaning and taking care
of the young or sick members so adult
household members are free to earn
money elsewhere. In rural areas where
there is little or no organised banking,
families are often forced into bonded
labour to pay off a money-lender's
debts and are coerced into bringing
their children along so the debt (often
as little as a few thousand rupees) can
be paid off faster. In urban areas,
migrant families that are illiterate,
homeless or who lack the necessary
paperwork to open bank accounts
often fall into the bonded labour trap
too.
For employers, child employees are
often more welcome than their adult
counterparts. Children take up less
space, complain less, need to be fed
smaller quantities of food, can be
bullied and beaten and paid less for
the same amount of work. In some
industries a young child's nimble
fingers are especially welcome – they
can sew smaller, more delicate
stitches, enter smaller mine shafts
and, in cramped city homes, sleep in
the tiny kitchenette without
complaining.
that statistic is shameful enough, it
does not include children engaged in
domestic labour, which largely covers
children as servants in the home. In
India, while government statistics paint
a grim picture by admitting that there
are 20 million child labourers, many
campaigners believe the number is
closer to 40 million. India already has
the largest population of children in
hazardous occupations (12.6 million).
But with little data on domestic
labourers, no formal account of India's
unpaid workforce and no statistics on
children who are forced into working
along with their families, it's possible
that we may shamefully have the
world's largest underage domestic
workforce too.
Why is it so rampant?
Poverty is the simplest explanation for
the extent of child labour in India –
most families are too poor to support
themselves and end up having larger
families so that there are more earning
members who start early and
contribute to the family income faster.
This often means that children are
denied education and play time and
are forced to endure long hours of
work instead. Some parents also
believe that acquiring work skills
instead of formal education is more
beneficial for their children, making it
difficult to send rescued children back
home permanently.
were only given a few hours of
freedom on Sundays. In another part
of Delhi, 34 kids forced into the leather
bag industry were rescued from the
horror of 14-hour workdays during
which they suffered skin and
respiratory diseases from being
around noxious chemicals. Some kids
were as young as seven years old.
These aren't stray headlines. India,
which has captured the world's
economic attention and is
mushrooming into a financial power
every day, still remains shockingly
backward when it comes to protecting
its children from becoming slaves to
industry. Child labour is present in
almost all sectors of the Indian
economy. In Coimbatore, children have
been rescued from working in a
popular department store; in Mumbai,
they're part of construction sites to
build a bigger, shinier city; and across
India, their little hands have made silk
saris, skinny jeans and fireworks.
They've even been forced into serving
India's increasingly affluent middle
class, which thinks nothing of
employing a servant no older than their
own child to work 18 hours a day for
little pay, no days off and no dignity.
How bad is the problem?
UNICEF estimates that the number of
labourers in the world between the
age of 5 and 14 is 158 million. While
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
9
and young children start mainstream
education right away. Another 21
districts have been covered under
INDUS, a similar scheme in
cooperation with US Department of
Labour to rehabilitate child labourers.
For areas not covered under these two
schemes, the government is also
funding several NGOs under the
Ministry's Grants-in-Aid Scheme to run
special schools for children.
So why are there still such
shocking headlines?
The Child Labour Prohibition and
Regulation Act makes the employment
of children illegal, except in family
owned enterprises. So factory owners
often find ways around the law by
claiming that a child labourer is a
distant family member. The other
reason for its sluggish enforcement is
even more difficult to address: many
people simply refuse to see any crime
in a child contributing to the income of
his or her family – they simply see it as
the child's duty, which leaves children
open to socially sanctioned
exploitation.
At present, the Act does nothing to
protect children who perform
domestic or unreported labour. It
means that it is still not illegal to have
a child under 14 to do the washing up,
babysitting, cooking cleaning and
caring for an Indian household. Several
from being exploited there. Early this
year, the Supreme Court also banned
travelling circuses from employing
children (often as acrobats) and
ordered the government to conduct
raids on all performing companies to
rescue minors.
In addition, a National Policy on Child
Labour was formulated in 1987 to
focus on rehabilitating children
working in hazardous occupations and
help their families get out of poverty. It
launched the National Child Labour
Project Scheme the following year in
nine districts where child labour was
especially rampant. The scheme plans
schools for working children, providing
formal and non-formal education along
with vocational training, a stipend of
`100 per month, supplementary
nutrition and regular health check-ups
so as to prepare them to join
mainstream schools. Most of these
schools are run by non-profit
organisations in the district.
Independent agencies, in coordination
with the V. V. Giri National Labour
Institute, evaluated the scheme in
2001, offering their own
recommendations. Based on their
findings, the National Child Labour
Projects were expanded to include an
additional 150 districts, measures have
been taken to help older NCLP
Scheme students join regular schools
Why doesn't the government do
something?
They've been trying. In 1979, the Indian
government formed the
Gurupadswamy Committee to
research the extent of child labour and
means to tackle it. The Committee
observed that as long as poverty
continued, it would be difficult to
totally eliminate child labour. So any
attempt to abolish it outright would
only be a law in name. They did,
however, take measures to protect
children from the worst of the
situation. Child labour (the
employment of any person under 14
years of age) was banned in hazardous
areas and measures were taken to
regulate conditions of work in other
industries.
The committee's recommendations of
a multiple policy approach to dealing
with the problems of working children
resulted in India's first-ever Child
Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act
in 1986. It banned the employment of
children in the transport of
passengers, the manufacture and
selling of crackers and fireworks,
abattoirs, carpet weaving, beedi-
making, cement, matches and soap
factories, construction sites and
several other hazardous industries. As
recently as 2006, the Act was
extended to the restaurant, hotel, spa
and resort industry, to protect children
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
11
there and let the management know
why. Complain to the ward officer and
find supporters in your locality so you
can organise a signature drive.
If you know of friends and family
members who employ young children,
discuss child rights with them and if
sending them back home is not
possible, ensure that the children are
at least sent to school and registered
with an NGO that will keep tabs on
their employer's behaviour.
Make sure the brands you buy are not
manufactured or assembled by
children – many brands that pay more
to do what is legal and right will
advertise that fact on their company
web sites or product labels. Write to
companies that use child labour and
demand that they stop.
Support charities that have a proven
record with the long-term rehabilitation
of underage workers.
Organisations like CARE India, Child
Relief and You, Global March Against
Child Labour, Justice and Care and
Pratham have tackled the issue in
bigger cities by organising rescue
operations and offering support and
education to children. Many like
Bachpan Bachao Andolan, also make
sure that rescued children are not
sucked back into the system by setting
up their own rehabilitation centre. The
Azad India Foundation also covers
Child Welfare Services as part of its
activities.
Delhi will soon have a toll free helpline
to handle complaints about child
labour – the number is 12789.
Childline, India's first helpline for
children in distress predominantly
caters to street children but also
accepts distress calls from exploited
child labourers. And in what is among
the first instances of employers being
brought to task, Coimbatore's Sri
Kannan Departmental store were
ordered by the courts to pay Rs 1.2
lakh for the rehabilitation of 6 child
labourers they had employed.
What can you do?
As a citizen and consumer, the best
way you can help is to be vigilant. If
you find that the assistant bagging
your groceries at the supermarket
should be in school, refuse to shop
middle-class families will happily
employ children with the justification
that they have created a better job
opportunity for the child, who would
have otherwise starved with his own
family or been pushed into a more
hazardous profession. Many educated
Indians also believe that offering food,
a place to sleep and minimum wage is
a good enough excuse to make a kid
under 14 years work 7 days a week
from dawn to dusk. Or that harming a
child as punishment is all right if you
are also paying that child a salary. Plus,
in almost all Indian industries girls are
unrecognised labourers because they
are seen as helpers and not workers
and often never make it to the official
records. Add to this the lack of will on
the part of law enforcers, bribery and a
lack of awareness of child rights, and
the law becomes even tougher to
enforce successfully.
Is there any hope for India's
underage who are sucked
into labour?
The ministry of Labour and
Employment has implemented more
than 100 industry-specific National
Child Labour Projects to rehabilitate
the child workers since 1988, but there
are also many non-governmental
agencies devoted to the cause of
eliminating child labour or at least
alleviating children from its worst
effects.
Photographer: Srinivasa Krishna
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
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Creative handicrafts that won the
prestigious Premio Principe de Viana
de la Solidaridad in 2010 lets you,
indulge in guilt free shopping.
Handmade clothes, soft toys and other
artifacts made by the women living in
the slums of Jogeshwari and Jeri Meri
in Mumbai make for some fun retail
therapy. The merchandise is sold by
means of mobile stores or Shop On
Wheels (SHOW) as they call it, at
exhibitions and sales organised by
government and non-government
organisations and also at their own
store, tucked away in a corner of Hill
Road, juxtaposed with the otherwise
contrastable busy road at Bandra. The
colourful kurtas, dresses and dolls will
please anyone who speaks fashion in
handcrafted, handloom products on
MERCHANDISING CHANGERetail therapy can do no wrong;
shopping can cause no harm. And
Bubble Wrapped now makes 'burning
a hole in your pocket' the
‘right thing to do'.
HANDCRAFTED DESTINIESAuthor: Aditi Mukherjee
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
14
For those who usually team up their
bottoms with kurtas or kurtis, there is
quite a variety! Long and short printed
or plain kurtas/kurtis on cotton, silk or
tussar that can be easily teamed up
with a pair of leggings or jeans.
Priced at Rs 150 to Rs 400
One can conveniently pair the kurtas
they choose with churidaars which are
available in a wide variety of colours!
Priced at Rs 150
...............................................................
development. Subsequently, capacity
building and community building
programmes were initiated where
women were taught to be
independent thinkers.
Mr. Johny Joseph, Director at Creative
Handicrafts points out that, “80% of
the profits is earned by exporting the
products to countries like France, Italy,
Spain and the United States of
America. A share of the profits is
distributed among the women.” These
women currently run 20 Fair Trade
Centres all by themselves, with a
leader as the link between the head
office and the Centre. For those who
can't stitch, Project Asli Foods, that
prepares lunch for over 400 office
goers, is a viable alternative self
employment opportunity.
While Sister Isabel thanks god for the
miracles He produced, the women in
the slum thank her for handcrafting
their dark clouded fates into a
kaleidoscope, much like the products
at Creative Handicrafts
printed or plain cotton, silk and other
materials and enjoys a good bargain.
Sister Isabel Martin Alonso, Founder
says, “I believe Fair Trade is solidarity
and the way to bring equity in the
world. Every purchase that we do
should make the life of someone.” In
1984 Sister Isabel, a missionary from
Spain realised that self employment
was the only way to rehabilitate the
women whose condition was being
neglected, were battered by their
husbands and left in poor self-esteem
conditions. After a lot of convincing,
she finally persuaded some sceptical
mothers of the children at Jeevan
Nirvaha Niketan, a local school to the
ill-starred children; to pay heed.
Several meetings later, Sister Isabel
collectively began Women Self
Employed Cooperative (WSEC) under
JNN's administration. She trained them
in the art sewing. Production
accelerated smoothly at a rapid pace.
As their financial condition brightened,
more women joined
WSEC enthusiastically.
By 1994, WSEC had snowballed into a
large group. So, they registered WSEC
under the name Creative Handicrafts,
as a secular, independent, Non
Government Organisation. Pretty soon
they realised that their focus should
indeed widen from mere economic
development to an overall
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
15
You will find a variety of jute and
cotton bags that are perfect fusions of
utility and fashion. We girls know that
is a winning combination!
Priced at Rs 100 to Rs 300
...............................................................
Creative Handicrafts also keeps
handmade dolls and soft toys for kids.
Now who wouldn’t want one of these
adorable ladies!
Priced at Rs 150
Knee-length sun-dresses for the
summer are now available at the store.
Otherwise, they also keep full length
cotton gowns.
Priced at Rs 150 to Rs 500
...............................................................
Printed cotton short skirts to flaunt
your oh-so beautiful legs are among
the must-haves this summer.
Priced at Rs 100 to Rs 300
...............................................................
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
16
There will come a time when the Earth
grows sick and when it does a tribe
will gather from all the cultures of the
World who believe in deeds and not
words. They will work to heal it… they
will be known as the "Warriors of
the Rainbow."
True to this American Legend, the
students of PSBB, T.P.Road, Chennai,
have listened to the call of their hearts,
and have been working to make visible
changes in the right direction towards
the environment. Going with their
motto, “Act Locally, Impact Globally”,
these group of students of classes
seven and eight have come out with
plans and ideas and more importantly,
have implemented them making
positive changes in
their neighbourhood.
These students, call themselves, the
Rainbow Warriors, and strongly believe
that this sustainable community would
empower people to care about Mother
Nature and to value and respect
traditional practices that are
CHILDREN FOR CHANGE Author: Saniya Surana
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
18
successfully convinced flower vendors
to use traditional packing methods like
plantain leaves. During Navratri they
surprised all the shoppers at Nilgiris, a
leading chain of retail stores with a cut
out of a tree placed at the gate (where
the customers could ink their
thoughts), and announced surprise
gifts to shoppers who would not
accept plastic bags, but instead
brought with them jute/cloth/paper
bags for their groceries. The Warriors
also supplied the others with jute bags
which were to be returned after their
use. The surprise gift was a tree
sapling along with an eco-friendly bag,
which the students had
made themselves.
Next on their hit-list, were the walkers
at Jeeva Park, a well-known park in the
neighbourhood. The students talked to
the people there about the use of
plastics, their harmful effects and the
importance of trees. They distributed
about a hundred hand-made paper
bags to Murugan Dry Cleaners, and
also to nearby stationery shops. Far
from being the end, the Warriors have
committed to regularly supply these
shop owners with paper bags and
have financed their entire initiative on
their own. Thus, with a noble cause in
their minds and hearts these young
and enterprising Rainbow Warriors
have shown that change is possible.
environmentally sound. The students
share the credit with their teacher,
Mrs. Radha, and call her their beacon
of light, guiding them at every little
step, helping their noble cause.
Together, they work by integrating
traditional wisdom and school learning
hoping to create changes that would
help to bring future generations closer
to nature and take steps to preserve,
protect and conserve the environment.
One of their initiatives has been to
campaign against the indiscriminate
use of plastic. As a first step, they
created awareness by talking to the
Parents of the School, informing them
about the state of their neighbourhood
and its long term implications. They
gathered support from these parents
and teachers and then targeted the
other students. To create excitement
amongst students, they launched a
contest, in which the students had to
form teams and create catchy caller
tunes with the theme being – 'Perils of
Using Plastics'. The winning tune will
soon be the School's Caller Tune. They
also organized a skit, informing them
how the caller tunes reflect their
individual interests and temperaments.
The Rainbow Warriors targeted small
businesses such as that of Mrs.
Malathi, a nearby tailor. They
convinced her to switch from plastic
bag to jute or paper bags. They also
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
19
After cancer, carbon emissions and
climate change are perhaps the
biggest 'c' words to watch out for in
this century. The Copenhagen (another
'c'!) summit of December 2009 sure
did make a lot of people sit up and
take notice of national and global
environmental crises. It also put an
unlikely spotlight on India's minister for
environment, Jairam Ramesh, as he
challenged the first-world nations'
dictats on controlling carbon
emissions to developing nations
around the world.
So how does one assess and decipher
these 'c's? Carbon dioxide emissions
or carbon emissions are those
stemming from the burning of fossil
fuels and the manufacture of cement.
They include carbon dioxide produced
during consumption of solid, liquid,
and gas fuels and gas flaring. Climate
change, as defined on the Government
of India's Ministry of Environments and
Forests's website, “refers to a
statistically significant variation in
either the mean state of the climate or
in its variability, persisting for an
extended period (typically decades or
C FOR...?Author: Anushree Chatterjee
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
22
billion tonnes today to between 4 and
7 billion tonnes in 2030.
Yet, if one were to compare a
developing and a developed nations
status today, the average Indian emits
far less carbon dioxide than, say, the
average American: 1.2 tonnes of CO2,
or over 16 times less, in fact. And
according to the report, even in 2030,
the average Indian will be emitting just
2.8 to 5 tonnes of CO2. This increase
is in view of the growth of industries,
population and other developmental
aspects which any country like India
will witness in the course of the next
two decades.
It was in view of this that several
developed nations tried to impose the
legally binding targets for emission
cuts. Interestingly, a paper written by T
Jayaraman, Chairperson, Centre for
Science, Technology and Society,
School of Habitat Studies, TISS,
explains why carbon emissions are
necessary for India. In 'Global Carbon
budgets and burden sharing regimes',
he writes on how for developing
countries like India, CO2 emissions are
now a necessary part of growth and
development. In this context, it has to
be treated as the utilisation of the
global 'carbon space' available in the
atmosphere. Obviously, Jayraman
states, that every nation's fair share of
carbon space is proportionate to its
USA, China, Russia and Japan.
Although not an emitter historically,
India currently has one of the fastest
growing economies in the world. With
a government target of 8% GDP to
achieve developmental priorities, a
share of one sixth of the global
population, and changing consumption
patterns, India's emissions are set to
increase dramatically. Growing at an
almost breakneck pace, and guzzling
coal, gas and oil in large quantities, we
are today, the fourth largest emitter of
greenhouse gases worldwide.
Although our per-capita emissions are
among the lowest in the world, our
growth rates imply that the past is no
predictor of the future. However, if we
do take a look at the future, consider
this. India's CO2 emissions are
predicted to increase three-fold by
2030. The Economic Survey of 2009-
2010 states, “Its (India's) climate
modelling studies show that its per
capita emissions will be around 2-2.5
tonnes of carbon- dioxide equivalent
by 2020 and around 3-3.5 tonnes of
carbon- dioxide equivalent by 2030,
compared to around 1-1.2 tonnes
presently.” Currently, India's carbon
emissions account for almost 6% of
the world total, and this number will
more than triple within the next 20
years. As per a report compiled by a
number of Indian institutions, the
country's emissions will soar from 1.2
longer). Climate change may be due to
natural internal processes or external
forcing, or to persistent anthropogenic
changes in the composition of the
atmosphere or in land use.)” Very
simply, it's about long term changes in
climatic patterns, in any given region.
Carbon dioxide is deemed as the main
culprit for climate change. Since the
early 1800s, with the onset of the
Industrial Revolution, when people
began burning large amounts of coal
and oil, the amount of carbon dioxide
in the earth's atmosphere has
increased by nearly 30%, and average
global temperature appears to have
risen between 1° and 2°F. Each country
compiles its own inventory, which is
audited and approved by the UN and
then used for calculating that country's
emission reductions against their
target. Carbon emissions are
measured in per metric tonnes, as per
combustive and other CO2-emitiing
activities of any given economy.
Carbon footprints, also pertaining to
the larger issue of controlling carbon
emissions, only looks at human
activities within the earth's
environment, to conceptualise the real
problem of climate change.
As per the latest documentations and
records, India (with 1,007,00 thousand
metric tonnes ) ranks at #5, in the list
of global CO2 emissions, preceded by
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
23
earliest. This perception has been the
basis for developed nations arguing
that large-scale emitters, whether they
are developed or developing nations,
must share the burden of climate
change mitigation immediately. This is
a one-sided consideration as carbon
emissions are recognised only as
pollution and not as a necessary part
of development, he writes in his paper.
Further, Jairam Ramesh has mentioned
that India would publish its emissions
inventory every two years from now
on, thereby setting an example of
transparency for developing nations. In
view of these events and research,
India's intent and stand are clear. While
the willingness to reduce carbon
emissions considerably is on priority,
the imposition do so immediately has
been regarded as unreasonable. With
the implementation of “green laws”
and several standards across
industries, educational, infrastructure
and construction sectors, the Indian
mindset is being moulded towards
pro-green thinking.
share of global population. In his
paper, he has developed a carbon
space model that provides strategies
for a more equitable distribution of
carbon space. It shows the need for
carbon space of those countries with
per capita emissions and GDP well
below the global average.
Since 1970, 2/3rd of carbon emissions
in the atmosphere have been
contributed by developed countries.
These countries which went through
major industrialisation at one time,
owe the rest of the world a carbon
debt of -127 billion tonnes.
Jayaraman's carbon budget
perspective shows the promise of
keeping India's per capita emissions
below that of the developed nations at
all times, is unnecessarily restrictive.
There has to be equitable sharing of
global carbon space available in the
atmosphere. For this, few countries
will have to cut down their emissions
drastically, while some countries
should be allowed to increase.
Jayaraman has said that India has
strong supporters from other
developing countries such as Brazil,
South Africa and China. Developed
countries at present are looking at an
approach that emission of greenhouse
gases is fundamentally a form of
pollution causing environmental
damage that must cease at the
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
24
SPACEAVAILABLE
To advertise here please contact Chetna at [email protected]
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
25
Creativity is Protsahan's favourite
weapon; one they use to alleviate
children from their bleak presents
propelling them into bright futures. So
it comes as no surprise that they found
yet another creative platform to create
awareness and hopefully laugh their
way to the bank. Protsahan organised
their first Comedy Fund Raiser at
South Ex, New Delhi. Rajneesh Kapoor
(creator of comic strips in Hindustan
Times), Abish Mathews (RJ from HIT
95FM) and Yaduvinder Singh Brar (the
rustic innocent sardar) had the crowd
in splits and they loosened their purse
strings with a smile. Funds for their
Educating India Project were raised
through the cover charge of Rs 250
which included a complimentary
beer/drink. Through this project
Protsahan is supporting and
encouraging little girls from
construction sites and streets in its
classroom at urban slums at Delhi.
They hope to make this fun-filled fund
raiser event a monthly affair.
REASON TO LAUGHAuthor: Chetna
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
28
For further information on how to get
your monthly dose of laughter and be
part of the positive change log on to
their website –
www.protsahanindiafoundation.org.
You can also follow their blog -
http://protsahan.wordpress.com/ or
join them on Facebook -
http://www.facebook.com/ProtsahanIn
diaFoundation
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
29
Music Basti, as the name suggests,
helps underprivileged children sing
their way into their future. What
started off as an initiative by Faith
Gonsalves three years ago is today a
full-fledged organisation that aims at
community-building among
underprivileged children through the
arts and music. The establishment
functions in collaboration with the Dil
Se Campaign in Delhi and works with
children from three shelter homes in
Delhi. “The background of the children
we work with,” says Faith, “is
incredibly diverse. Some of them have
been abandoned by their families,
some may have run away from home,
some are orphans or belong to
immigrant families. We try to help
these kids develop certain life skills
through the arts. Through learning,
communication and interaction, we
hope that they can imbibe and absorb
these skills, a sense of identity, self-
awareness and lateral thinking, so that
they are better equipped to deal with
the rigours of life.” With the help of
volunteers, the organisation
THE UNSUNG VOICESAuthor: Akhil Sood
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
30
as possible, thus giving children from
hidden parts of Delhi the chance to
express themselves and, be heard and
appreciated. This would hopefully
introduce a new thought process,
ideas and skills that would help them
in the long run,” explains Faith. The
three groups are expected to hit the
studio for recording in May. “We want
to complete the recording process and
release the songs by July. As of now
this remains an independent project,
but we are looking for partners for
distribution, promotion and marketing
of the music,” she adds.
Abhishek Mathur, guitar player for the
well-known fusion band Advaita, is
composed jointly by the children and
the artists working with them. With
roughly 60-70 children involved, the
aim is to release three songs, each
unique to the respective home based
around the general theme of water and
rain, which has been picked by the
children themselves. “This project
gives the children a tangible goal,
which really helps to rally them and get
their co-operation. Since there's a
definite end-result in sight it keeps
them motivated. Beyond merely giving
them a voice and a song that belongs
to them, we are also giving them the
opportunity to be heard across the
world. We plan on releasing the album
online and spreading the music as far
undertakes several projects, usually
centred on music, providing a
foundation to help develop the latent
artistic instincts within the children
and provide them with a profound
appreciation of the arts through
education and interaction as well as
the opportunity to perform.
This month, Music Basti provides the
children with a voice and an
opportunity to be heard in a world
where so often their voices are
ignored and brushed aside. The
organisation is currently working with
several volunteers and children from
the three homes to create and release
an album with songs written and
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
31
the demeanour of the children over
time. “They've become technically very
sound when it comes to music, as
compared to when we first started off.
Also, they seem a lot more
comfortable with social interaction and
communicating now, which is
great to see.”
Music Basti as an organisation is
currently working with over 350
children, but Faith explains that due to
the high attrition rates, the number of
children on any given project or
workshop differs greatly. “We are not
aiming for a schooling kind of format
with our projects, so sometimes, when
we conduct an open workshop, every
child in the centre will attend it, and
often, during specific volunteer
programmes, there will be just a
handful of children attending. It's
always hard to see a tangible outcome
to what we do, but our aim is to
develop and strengthen the abilities of
the kids in a social context. The
children will always make their own
choices in life, but our goal is to
prepare them for whatever outcome
they might choose.”
involved with the project, and is
working with the children at one of the
homes along with Advaita's saarangi
player Suhail Yusuf Khan. Elaborating a
little on the song-writing process, he
tells us, “The song revolves around the
theme of rain, with elements of
thunder, lighting and other aspects
integrated into the lyrics. We interact
with the children and discuss what
comes to their minds when they think
of the rains, and we try to combine
these elements putting them into a
lyrical context.” He reveals that Suhail
has fleshed out a rough melody which
they are currently expanding on and
arranging for the track. “We are
working on a very ethnic Indian
classical sound for the song, with the
harmonium playing a strong role, and
are also using elements of folk music.”
Abhishek tells us that he, along with
Suhail, has been working with the
same set of students for the past two
and a half years. “It's been a great
learning process for us as well, as
we've tried to change and adapt our
teaching methods in order to best fulfil
the potential of the kids. Over time, I
think we've developed an interactive
teaching structure and have figured
out when we're supposed to let loose,
and when we need to crack down and
push them a little.” He describes how
he has witnessed a definite growth in
both the musical abilities as well as
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
32
FOR RENTTo advertise here please contact
Chetna at [email protected]
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
33
We are well aware of the possibility of
a war between nations being fought
over water. Yet we are oblivious, if not
complacent, to the fact that a
domestic war is already being fought
in the hinterland of the country. A war
that has its stems rooted in the rapidly-
declining water tables, and fuelled by
gender, economic, social and political
injustice. An NGO called Watershed
Organisation Trust (WOTR) has dug in
its heels at the front line and has
refused to be cowed down by either
scepticism or pessimism that no one
can reverse the fate of these water
starved region.
WOTR was founded in 1993, works
only in rural areas where 70% of India's
population lives and this not-for-profit
organisation's work is based on a
simple premise: development and self-
empowerment of the poorest through
a 'ridge-to-valley' approach. The ridge-
to-valley approach suggests that the
poorest people hold on to ridges
which in turn contains minimum
WATER IDEAAuthor: Mark Menezes
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
34
what's best for the locals without
consulting those whose lives stand to
be impacted. A Village Development
Committee (VDC) is set up to meet
this requirement. The second stage is
to ensure equitable and representative
representation on this committee of all
the stake holders involved. All the
villagers are slotted into four economic
categories – very poor, poor, medium
middle and better off. At least one
representative from each category is
present on the VDC. The purpose of
identifying the different economic
strata is to assess how much each
group can contribute monetarily to
their community's development. For
example in the Wankute village of
Sangamner taluka in Ahmednagar
district, when the VDC decided that
they needed to install solar panels at
home, it was decided that the two
upper rungs of the economic strata
farms, as well as spawn secondary
and tertiary occupations that can only
contribute to their own growth story.
WOTR works in five states: Jharkhand,
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra
Pradesh and Rajasthan. Of all their
models and projects implemented,
one particular framework called the
Wasundhara Approach has garnered
attention and results on the ground
because of its simplicity that is fused
with the required knowledge of the
present ground realities. The
Wasundhara Approach is structured
along four stages. The first begins with
involving the locals in the decision-
making process. This first step
eliminates the mistake that has
plagued many government and non-
government rural development
projects in India– that of a third-party
stepping into a village and deciding
amount of water through the surface
run off of rain water, while the better-
off sections of society inhabit the
valley below that contain easy access
to plenty of water and require less
direct assistance to alleviate poverty.
What relation does water conservation
have to the development of society?
The understanding is that once the
rural society, whose primary source of
livelihood is agriculture, receives
enough water to irrigate their primary
occupation, families will no longer
have to think of merely making ends
meet. "The first thing people do when
their watershed regenerates and their
income goes up is to take their kids
out of the fields and put them in
school," said managing trustee and co-
founder Crispino Lobo in an interview
with National Geographic. The youth of
the village can find employment on the
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
35
process hasn't always been smooth
and, if reports are to be believed, there
were also instances where WOTR
representatives have been chased out
of a village by an axe-wielding man
who for some reason didn't grasp the
fact that WOTR was there to make a
positive difference to his and his
family's life. Generally though, WOTR
hasn't faced as much resistance and
has been directly involved in work
across 1,012 villages, while partnering
with 184 NGOs and government
agencies to indirectly support projects
in 1,189 more villages. Their work
hasn't been unrecognised. They won
the Kyoto World Water grand prize in
2009, Maharshtra's highest award in
the field of agriculture The Dr
Punjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Ratna
Award in 2010 and have also been
granted observer status as civil society
organisation to the United Nations
Convention to Combat Desertification.
The only collateral that WOTR aims to
achieve by stepping into this war that
was never their own to begin with, is
to bring about sustained and rapid
social, economic and inclusive growth
among those that need it the most.
would contribute 65% and 40%
respectively, while the two lower rungs
would contribute 20% and 10%
respectively, with the WOTR supplying
the additional funds to bridge the gap.
By insisting that at least half the
number of members on the VDC must
comprise of women, WOTR is doing
their bit to usher in gender-equality-
based development.
The third stage is where WOTR
organises women to form self- help
groups like Samyukt Mahila Samiti
(SMS), where providing them micro-
finance is provided to the women in
order that they can jumpstart their
choice of occupationsloans so they
can lend to other villagers with low
interest rates. This access to non-
predatory credit is the key for villagers
to take control of their lives,
economically and personally. In the
final stage, WOTR liaisons with
government agencies to support the
impetus that has been pioneered by
the villagers themselves.
WOTR is categorical that they do not
intend to spoon-feed growth and
development into villages. They are
driven towards the goal of
encouraging and supporting the
villagers to chart their own growth
story, with them standing behind as a
support and guidance mechanism. The
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
36
Imagine...
If the water we use, apart from being
reused, actually grows to fill the
reservoirs with some innovative
contribution from our side. Let's be
Water positive.
If the industrial waste we generate,
apart from being reused, is recycled to
blend in with the cycle of nature –
using our intelligence to work out a
process that equates waste with value.
Let's be Carbon neutral.
If the energy we save, apart from
slowing the consumption and
addressing the 'responsible' use, is
distributed by each one of us to
benefit the other. Let's be
Energy positive.
That is how Dr Nitin Borkar, CEO of
VerGo Pharma Research Laboratories
Pvt. Ltd., Goa, looks at his mission to
make his company an intelligence
driven research and development
'carbon neutral' firm. He is also
HEALING THE ENVIRONMENTAuthor: Sheetal Paknikar (www.seventwentyten.org)
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
40
herbal, food supplements with
regulatory support. The custom
synthesis program is involved in drug
substance, impurities, metabolites and
mark compound standardisation.
Presently, VerGo is developing a
clinical manufacturing plant and has
interest in extending the scope to
commercial manufacturing in niche
areas. Addition of in house clinical
facilities in future will ensure VerGo
giving their global clients a one stop
solution for all their
pharmaceutical needs.
In response to a question about the
popular perception about Chemical
and Pharmaceutical companies
contributing to the air pollution and
toxic solid and liquid waste, Dr Borkar
felt that this could well be a reality if
the design of the
pharmaceutical/chemical plant does
not focus on identifying sources of
The Question
field of drug manufacture and
technology. It ranks very high in the
third world, in terms of technology,
quality and range of medicines
manufactured. From simple headache
pills to sophisticated antibiotics and
complex cardiac compounds, almost
every type of medicine is now made
indigenously. Research and
development has always taken the
back seat amongst Indian
pharmaceutical companies. In order to
stay competitive in the future, Indian
companies will have to refocus and
invest heavily in R&D.
Based in Verna, Goa, VerGo Pharma
Research Laboratories Pvt. Ltd is a
contract research organisation
supporting the global pharmaceutical
and chemical industry. The company's
core competence lies in turn key
product development for prescription
pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals,
About VerGo Pharmaceuticals
pioneering his village, Bori, in South
Goa to set an example of 'collective
innovation' – being Water positive and
Energy positive.
Most of today's major pharmaceutical
companies were founded in the late
19th and early 20th centuries. Key
discoveries of the 1920s and 1930s,
such as insulin and penicillin, became
mass-manufactured and distributed.
Switzerland, Germany and Italy had
particularly strong industries, with the
UK, US, Belgium and the Netherlands
following suit.
Cancer drugs were a feature of the
1970s. From 1978, India took over as
the primary centre of pharmaceutical
production without patent protection*.
The Indian Pharmaceutical Industry
today is in the front rank of India's
science-based industries with wide
ranging capabilities in the complex
Industry Background
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
41
Final Word
Relatively new companies like VerGo
Pharmaceuticals have their focus on
not just providing quality services in
the R&D/manufacturing sector and
showcase the scientific capability that
India is now known for – but crucially
to increase awareness about using
intelligence to make the earth water
positive, carbon neutral and energy
positive.
And for every thought we generate, it's
no longer just enough to be aware. It is
time to GO and act.
*Data source: Wikipedia
pollutants. In all companies, these
have to be checked and certified by
regulatory bodies like the Pollution
Control Board.
Liquid and solid biodegradable wastes,
including food leftovers, are converted
into 'vermicompost' – an excellent
organic fertiliser and soil conditioner.
The industrial wastewater is treated
through an ETP – an Effluent Treatment
Plant – that eliminates residual
chemicals before being recycled for
internal/external use. Other liquid
waste streams, classified into
Halogenated and Non-Halogenated
Hydrocarbons (both miscible and
immiscible), heavy metal etc. are
appropriately disposed.
Biodegradable solid wastes such as
paper and cloth blend with nature but
polymer based plastic wastes are
something that Dr Borkar has eyes on
– and he feels that either burying or
incinerating (burning) only degrades
nature and threatens public health.
This is an issue he is addressing on the
long term even at his village in Bori –
patiently educating people on the need
to reduce use and collect
and recycle.
The fascinating aspects of procedural
standards followed above at VerGo are
worth a visit. If Goa is a little too far,
you could check out the details on
www.vergopharma.com.
waste and environmental friendly
strategy to reduce, eliminate, control
and scientifically handle the waste.
As an intelligent animal, man
continues to devise innovative ways to
use nature's resources for his benefit.
The development in science and
technology has pushed the envelope
to accelerate this process. However,
sections of the world today realise
time is ticking – and fast – and if we do
not use our intelligence to address
overuse of resources (and generate
some of our own) we are slowly but
surely entering the critical period in the
earth's survival. Needless to say, global
warming is now manifesting itself in
our everyday life. But VerGo has
decided to walk that extra mile to
return to the Earth everything they take
in a manner befitting the intelligence
we humans' have been endowed with.
As a company, VerGo ensures that
certified 'filters' are applied to all
processes followed in manufacturing.
All gaseous, liquid & solid wastes
generated are tested for toxins, made
benign before releasing them into the
environment.
Gas emissions - the residual wastes
from the chemical processes ('fume
cupboards') at VerGO go through
'scrubbers' that filter environmental
The VerGo Way
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
42
FOR LEASETo advertise here please contact
Chetna at [email protected]
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
43
Let me begin with a personal
anecdote. My interest in CSR started
while working for a Knowledge
Processes Outsourcing (KPO) firm in
the National Capital Region. It was
2006, the year that is now
remembered for George W Bush's visit
to India and the signing of the
landmark Indo-US Nuclear Deal. A lot
of media attention was lavished on this
event, examining its potential to either
turbo-charge or punch holes in the
India growth story. It is fitting that I
invoke this episode in 2011, when the
Fukushima disaster has burnt the issue
of 'development vs human safety'
decisively into the
world's consciousness.
However, the Nuclear Deal wasn't the
trigger for the genesis of my
engagement with CSR. That credit
goes to my brief 'apprenticeship' with
THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORST OF TIMESAuthor: Tanmoy Goswami (Managing Editor – The Smart Manager)
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
44
The Smart Manager's initiative on
ethics in general and CSR in particular
is a product of this unforgiving world
and its lengthening shadow on India.
In popular imagination at least, the
West has always kept 'business'
separate from 'morals'. On the other
hand in India, like so much else,
business goals have always been
supervised by moral values, and doing
good, a matter of personal
satisfaction. With the blurring of the
boundaries between these two
universes, however, this neat polarity
is now suspect. The industrialised
West, unabashed champion of
maximising RoI as the vehicle of
greater good, is pausing on its tracks
to contemplate its footprints.
Simultaneously, and inevitably, as
some say, the karma of capital ought
to make Indian businesses think
whether the joy of giving can still be
the only valid driver of CSR. In fact,
some of the big consulting MNCs have
already thrown their hat in the ring to
help Indian companies cross over from
charity to strategic investing. Add to
this mix the traditional Indian prejudice
toward wealth—and the government's
predilection to institute mandatory
CSR—and what you get is the all-too-
familiar argumentative Indian energy
that the rest of the world
sees as chaos.
waiting for a bloody, greed-induced
recession to declare this loud
and clear.
The point is, if you are just another
individual—at least one who can still
see life as having a function beyond
consuming the various fruits of
business—such an epiphany will
largely be of theoretical interest. It may
stir a deep torrent of questions and
even make you look obliquely at a few
other beliefs and habits, but it will still
not create a fundamental identity
crisis. It cannot. We 'individuals' are too
far down the consumption route to be
bothered, you would agree. It is better
to let such complex issues be resolved
by those who have brought it upon
themselves, and that is not 'us'.
However, if you are a business—the
'them' in this equation—there is
nowhere to hide. This is a world in
which you no longer have the right to
just be yourself. Even admitting that
you understand is not enough, unless
you enact your understanding. If you
don't act, but nonetheless continue to
be troubled by your 'conscience', you
are a confirmed schizophrenic who can
no longer be trusted. Another way of
saying the same thing is that you are
guilty of neglecting the Triple
Bottom Line.
Mr Arun Maira, then of the Boston
Consulting Group, and now a member
of the Planning Commission. While
working for the aforesaid KPO, I was
entrusted with helping Mr Maira
research several subjects for a book,
including the state of CSR around the
world and civil society action on
questionable corporate practices. In
the ensuing month or two, our team
compiled an enormous amount of
primary and secondary information,
including a few enlightening interviews
with some of the world's most
headline-friendly companies. By the
end of the project, one automatic filter
had emerged from our search: the
potential of a business to survive civil
society pressures in the long run. At
that time, I imagined—as did my
team—that at the end of the day, the
key to whether a business would be
left alone by society at large lay in how
much legitimately earned profit it
could generate for its stakeholders,
and, maybe, how well it paid its
employees. We could not have been
more naïve.
The net result of the exercise was my
realisation that business, no matter
how legitimate and 'rewarding', can
indeed no longer be the only business
of business. I hadn't read Friedman at
that time, and I didn't know anything
about his detractors either, but it was
easy to see that society wasn't exactly
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
45
Mittal, Keki Mistry and Kishor Chaukar,
among others, to find direction in this
environment.
Yet, these are good times, if only
because centuries-old ideas are being
given a workout. No matter which side
of the fence you are in, you cannot
deny that dovetailing concepts such as
'social responsibility' and 'strategy'
signals a certain maturity and freedom
of thought. Whether or not this is a
freedom worth anything though will
need to be determined through
collaboration between 'us' and 'them'.
Like the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, you
may or may not like the outcome, but
you have to agree that it is an idea
whose time has come.
The Smart Manager magazine is
publishing a special issue on ethics
and CSR in May and organizing a
strategy debate involving industry
leaders, think tanks and the media in
Mumbai on the 3rd of June, 2011. The
broad agenda is to ask whether India
Inc is prepared to look at CSR as a
matter of strategic calculations, given
the latest legislative mood in the
country. If CSR is indeed mainlined on
the balance sheet, it may finally force a
delinking of corporate social
investments from philanthropy—first
and foremost in the realm of ideas. On
the other hand, there are fundamental
questions about populism, deficits in
public governance and the future of
the PPP model. The Smart Manager
has brought together Rahul Bajaj, Ajay
Piramal, Harsh Mariwala, Rakesh Bharti
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
46
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Chetna at [email protected]
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
47
THE BEGINNINGBubble Wrapped loves putting them
on centre stage. So if you know of
anyone out there carrying the torch for
a cause, keep us posted.
The next few issues are going to see a
few additions such as a segment on
international news and events from the
sector. Bubble Wrapped hopes to go
across borders and reach out to a
wider audience by making the content
more relevant in terms of information,
ideas and practices.
As always, I would like to end with an
invitation to join us on Facebook and
Twitter. Until next time...
happy reading!
Cheers!
Chetna
I would like to end this month's issue
with a heartfelt thanks to every one of
my readers. Thank you for logging on,
passing the link to your family and
friends as well as giving me
your feedback.
This month, Bubble Wrapped
addresses certain key issues and
highlights some best practices. I hope
we can all learn something new and
initiate the change we all want to see.
Two of my favourite stories this month
have been the cover story that
addresses Child Labour issues and the
one on VerGo Pharma. I hope other
companies follow suit and return to
the Earth what they take from her.
Our features - Merchandising Change
and The Face of Change – have also
received overwhelming response. So
many people doing so much good and
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
48
FOR RENTTo advertise here please contact
Chetna at [email protected]
Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2011, www.bubblewrapped.asia
49