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Reflections from 1st Winter School on Public Policy & Social Change

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

14th

December, 2014

Introductory Session

The Answer Question Session using video!

The first session of answering questions after watching video was close to shock, where we have no clue

what to write as we were told that this will be part of the evaluation. Later it was explained by Ankur Sir

that there was no correlation between video and questions to answer, it was the first lesson which helps

us to challenge the system and norms existing in the society. The brief session was dos, which made us

think, and having some logic about something that doesn‟t exist.

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Interaction with Prof. Ashish Nanda (Director, IIM Ahmedabad)

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Powerless (Katiyabaaz): A documentary that helped us understand the ground reality deeply rooted in

the system. The problem persists at every level from the beneficiary to the service provider. The

documentary talked about the electricity problem that Kanpur city is facing and various catalyst that are

part of it from common man, IAS officer, Politician and the person “Loha Singh” who connect electricity

wire for living. The documentary articulated the actual situation in the mob and government office; the

way official deals the work and the way people react. However, the documentary does not make anyone

accountable for the electricity crisis that Kanpur city is facing.

The movie also highlighted the dependency of electricity for livelihood by common man and how

industries are reducing day by day in a city that faces 14-16 hours of the power cut. The another

takeaway which shown the reality of life and problem that we face in daily lives and there is no ideal

solution to it, and everyone is right in society about her stand. The documentary lucidly explained how

various stakeholders from beneficiary to electricity providers have responded and what is their view point

about a particular problem? It also showed us the dependency of the livelihood and how people are

fighting for basic amenities like electricity.

Question & Answer Session at the end with the Director of Documentary

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15th

December, 2014

1. The cake experiment, Prof. Ankur Sarin

How to distribute a cake

The cake was bought in class, and two volunteers were asked to cut the cake, surprisingly, the instructor

asked how to distribute the cake? The distribution the cake has left many unanswered questions. How

are you going to distribute the cake? Is it according to the basis of having those whose stomach is filled

versus those who have not taken breakfast? Then, what if those who not have breakfast, because they

were sleeping, so should it be criteria of distributing? How many cuts we are going to make and how we

will decide who will get the bigger chunk of cake? Who will get less or who will get more there is no

proper solution of it? Finally after a lot of discussions we reached the conclusion is there is no ideal

solution to distribute the cake, and we should not look for it! It was a dilemma that we face of the society

especially, every policy maker!

Policy has two parts one in written form and other that is experienced, the later deal with the

implementation. Written (dejure) and experienced (detacto)

When talking in the lectures instructor also suggested working at micro level, to connect the dot further

and also refrained from finding an ideal solution for any problem that exist in the society because there is

no ideal solution. Removing the burden of the finding a solution was another aspect that mentioned

articulately at the same time also gives some space to us before reaching any conclusion.

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2. Participatory Action Research, Binoy Acharya Sir

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The following approach was explained:

Learning process

Banking method 100 deposited 100 extracted

Liberating method-everybody participated in this method

Subjective to objective

How to democratize knowledge: The knowledge is not only for rich but sometimes it could come from

the poor. Villagers are knowledgeable in the aspect that we are not. Knowledge should be made available

to everyone despite social strata and allocation of resources without any boundary.

Good sharing happens informally: There is a formal way of learning like classrooms, and there is

informal way i.e. through observation. In a famous research on gravitational force and fall of an apple

from the tree the inventor said,” if others have thought as hard as I have they have reached the same

conclusion”.

Barmer district, Rajasthan story: The white plastics story for water conservation, tells the insight that

participant can bring and the missed approach that a planner can face. The reason white plastic cannot

be used is that Barmer district is that it was close to the border, hence an invitation of bombing the village.

Learn from people silence: The 30 crore rupees invested in the seed for the crop production. The

farmers consumed the seed; the reason is the foreign seeds can‟t survive, which showed a missed

approach or perspective of observing the events and hence wastage of time and money.

Broken Bulb- Bulb were broken in the village; the reason is that it was a roadblock as the lane was used

for the sanitation use, hence causing an uncomfortable situation.

The following points are explained having a participatory approach:

Passive participation

Consultative participations

Contributory participation

Functional participations

Interactive participation

Self-mobilization

Putting the first last: The report written by an expert should be evaluated by the family member or the

beneficiary, for whom the project/policy is made and not by the higher official as they can bring the

insight. After the report is passed by the beneficiary, it should be considered valid, but generally it doesn‟t

happen. Bottom up approach is necessary, with something to learn from people

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Sewing machines, specs: The government distributed spectacles and cookers to have more time for the

project to be implemented as an ancillary benefit for the scheme.

People engagement is necessary for the success of the project, no matter in which business you are!

Attitude Behavior Change (ABC) - ABC is necessary to have the insight; biased thoughts could be a

major drawback and led to the failure of the project.

Inequality made out of knowledge-Participatory research is necessary to understand complete reality, a

new concept mentioned is also inequality produced by the knowledge.

What if a person is angry do we have any mechanism to record it: In lecture instructor mentioned that we

don‟t have any mechanism for recording the personal emotions and thoughts which could be important

information for qualitative research and hence the best research arises out of not a quantitative method

but a mix of both.

Few other concepts and documents mentioned

Participatory research is a value not technique for getting the information.

Fighting poverty World Development Report 2000

Expose Dialogue Program (EDP)

Books Suggested

Robert Chambers: Whose Reality Counts

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3. Amit Sir

The experience is well explained and has shown the importance and how much we can learn from those

who are at the lower strata of the society was well taken. The nest example and the learning that the

children and choices that we made for them were also great! Instructor thoughts and philosophy of

schooling the world was good. The schools does not create the learning, but sometimes disrupt the

creativity was well taken and gave me an answer to the questions of learning, through making sculpture,

engine, art and may other list that I have made to learn them, may be its time to take a shot.

Bird Nest: How the villagers predict the rainfall, is depends upon the birds nest build; if it is higher on the

tree, the rainfall is going to be higher, if lower then low rainfall is expected.

Sign Language: It is difficult task to learn the sign language, but how organically, need teaches us as

mentioned by Amit sir when sharing a story by the villagers.

Parrot and Kingdom: Parrot story was mentioned to show that learning is unconscious, people learn not

forcefully but organically. A bird can‟t swim no matter how hard you try.

What you see comes faster than you hear: The mind learns by seeing things much faster than the

hearing and reading. Children learn by doing the things seeing more efficiently than luggage of books and

punishment.

The instructor shown a different way of seeing the life, close to nature and changing the norms, creating a

better learning environment and create a balanced world with good education which can provide us food

land and water. Most amazing view point he has kept which help me, to think it again and again about the

problems that society is facing.

Video: Schooling the world white man‟s burden

The documentary at the last after dinner session was also shown us the reality of killing creativity, how we

are making our lives hell and want everything at our fingertip. The schooling, the culture, language,

traditions, skill sets are of very diverse nature, but they are now standardized and one language and

culture is dominating over other very true.

Few books and concepts mentioned

De-schooling society, Ivan Illich

Do hell with the good intentions

Do not sleep there are snakes

The way children learn is totally against the system that the schools teach

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16th

December, 2014

1. Evaluation of Public Policy, Prof. Sharon Baranhardt

The class on counterfactual and impact assessment methods was explained with the help of a live

example of burning matchstick and case study. The case study explained all the four efficient method in

detail.

Shorn mam was good explained the regression and other ways of experiments in business in a way to

measure the impact were well taken the example of matchstick

One matchstick

Counter factual-before burning

Two matchsticks

Before burning measured and after burning measured

Two matchsticks parallel

Both measured initially before burning and after burning

Leanings

The first class of Sharon mam was a good introduction to have an overview of a quantitative technique.

The matchstick experiment, I hope that I can refer to the experiment when get confuse during the

concepts. The examples help us to sum up the fundamental concepts that we learn.

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2. Environmental Policy, Prof. Ram Mohan Turaga

The session started with a handout of few newspaper headlines; the instructor asked to express the

thoughts that come after reading the news items.

The class was detailed description and an answer to the question of many unsolved queries related to

environmental degradation and policy. The cost and benefits analysis was the answer and questions to

many problems that the world is facing.

Cost benefit analysis was done by using what is the cost attached to the policy and what are the benefit

that we are receiving, but there was no clear cut explanation of the cost that is associated with the

environmental degradation.

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3. Field Visit: We were told to form a group of ten members, and then the field visit was planned having a

mentor. We visited few places in the nearby region with a questionnaire and interaction with the people at

the bottom of the society. We gained first-hand exposure about how to collect the data? What problems

could you face during the field visit? What are the things and observation that you should be skeptical

during the visit?

17th

December, 2014

1. Shibayan’s Workshop-Community

Leadership lesson from dancing guy: How the movement is created, it just started random dancing

from one person and then got second follower then third and so on which converted it into the mass

dancing platform. The video shown us how movement is created what you need to be a leader, how it

start and how to carry it out?

Ugly Indian: The ugly Indian video shown how to fix the challenges and change the perception of the

common man? It started with the identifying and painting the boundary wall to stop people from using the

road, streets as a garbage dump. It explained, How initiative of giving the boundary at the bottom of the

wall has made the changes to the common man?

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Workshop of untangling hands

We were told to make a circle, and count from 1-10. The individual numbers assigned are then chosen to

form a group. For example, all those who have said nine as there turn form a group. The task was given

then, and our hands are clubbed with all the teammates and then we have to untangle our hands without

leaving our hands through the team effort.

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Workshop of drawing a community

We are told to draw a community on a chart that includes how our community should look like? Some

alien came from outside and destroyed our community and tear them apart. The exercise was taken to

the classroom for learning.

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2. Economics and Law, Prof. Pavan Mamidi

The lecture reflected a strong ideology and problem that the country is facing for food, land, and water; it

talked about the Naxalites. The various aspect of the Naxals has led us to questions like what you would

have reacted do if your family raped and killed? We all are in our comfort zone! What you have the same

pain that the Naxals have! The TED video shown, in the end how two monkeys behaved when treated

unequally speak enough to give a view that we all are not treated equally and the society is divided in

caste, creed, and culture.

3. Innovation- Prof. Anil K. Gupta

How to solve a linear tap water, so that everybody can drink water? The tap is horizontal in position, and

there are different child of different age group and height so that they can‟t reach the tap.

The instructor mentioned an incident, where he asked the villagers, how you recognize the sheep that are

close to 200?

The villagers took the sheet of paper from his hand and told ” all the words of papers appears same to

me”. Which means that as you cannot read my language of living so do I!

2 teachers and 6 classes how the students should be taught and the answer was good students should

take classes for the rest of the others.

Keep the child within even if we grow: The other lesson mentioned is as we grow we wear mask to

hide ourselves as the person grow the mast become a permanent, everyone should keep the child within

her. We all wear mask! The mask that we wear in the lives also explains enough to get rid of it.

In modern day, we have learned How to live with problems indefinitely! Which stops us from inventing,

exploring and finding a solution and hampers the creativity.

Make your problems yours even it is not yours: For the benefit and greater good, this is the mantra

which says that, make every problem around you as yours problems which will led you the final

destination and will change your and someone‟s life.

Sanvedena = „sam‟+‟vedena‟: When doing good at the society, it should not be on the basis of pity or

charity it should be because you feel the same pain as other person is feeling. It emerges from

internalization as many as the other person feel it/ but than u r not doing any favor to anybody

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Chandragupta Maurya times mentioned which has shown that it was the happiest time in the history; we

have lost the way lower caste people have ruled and forget to validate the importance of poor and

marginalized.

Living, loving and learning this will all sum to the professor Anil Gupta

Snake an Ladder: Our forefathers invented the game of snake and ladder as it is a game of

Randomness, equality, and probability

If a person is predictable, she will be taken for granted.

Family cannot be an excuse or roadblock for the things in life that you want to achieve.

Everyone makes Mistake, but the courage to commit is all that make the difference

The most beautiful painting is imperfect painting

To get the things in life you should be in Search, spread and celebrate

To get the insight and always learn Look for things that people have they done the way and the

day you are not surprised u have not lived.

Obedience and persistence Eklavya story

Language shape the habit of thoughts

Learn to play with the devil

To be neutral in the world

A beautiful story of a woman was mentioned which just used few threads to change the things the way

should be where World Bank failed. The story says that women used few threads to tie in the hands of

the villagers. and then demanded their daughter for teaching in the school. She wrote letter to all the

villagers reminding about the child education for the rest of the years.

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4. Chaul Mam, Vinay Sir, Music class

The revolutionary music was an excellent way of expressing the pain and discrimination of the society.

The music touched the heart, spoke well and shown the situation that we are facing. The Rajdhani

express left food is treated as party food for street children. The palms and brain development in the

context of chimpanzees and how it feels when these palms don‟t have work in hand.

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The candle light was in the memory of children died

18th

December, 2014

1. Ravi Gulati Sir

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The class was again touching and revolving around, a problem that hurt you most then asking few

questions.

How to shape a cubical ice cube to spherical? Defreeze the ice and reshape it again. In the same way,

human personality can also be shaped, by defreezing and freezing it again.

The pesticide paradox: The paradox of solving the problem of pest can cause many harms on other

things as well as soil, crop, and production. The problem is that we think linearly cause and effect; we

want an instant solution for everything. We don‟t solve the problem systematically.

Linear versus systematic thinking

Linear examples-

Caste certificates

Kandala cyclone

Pipli live

Systematically-How wolves change the river

Learning thinking can lead us to many more challenges whereas systematic thinking can lead us to solve

many unsolved problems. The video of how wolves changed the flow of river was enough to explain how

the wolves have changed the way the reindeer graze the grass to a park, which caused to grow grass

and other animal with flora and fauna and hence a simple act by having wolves have changed the

situation of the whole park.

Butterfly effect: small things have huge effect-flapping the wings in Beijing can change the weather in

California.

Prediction of weather we use supercomputers, but simple butterfly can predict it.

Sensitive dependence of the initial conditions was told to show that many factors and attributes are

closely associated with a change that we want to carry out.

Three kinds of change

Static: A to B applied force, internal pressure

Static example-football

Dynamic-in the form of trajectory form A-B-C-D-E

Dynamic- a person playing football

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Dynamical

Avalanche: Mountain, a pebble could led an avalanche, it also depends upon the initial conditions

Dynamical many persons playing football

Finite game

Football game

Opponents, filed of play, rules, expertise, purpose: to win, closed, low dimension, linear

Infinite game

Company strategy on raising community

Unbounded, all players changing rules, looking for fit.

Purpose: keep playing

Open,

High dimensions, non-linear, seeing and influencing

3 camels 2 ropes Story

The story of the camel narrated speaks enough the psychological barrier that refrain us from doing many

things in life. A person has two ropes and three camels; he tied the two camels and was worried about

the third camel. A monk was passing by; he shared his problem with the monk, monk just moved his

hands and acted like he is tying the camel.

In the morning, the camel owner sees that the camel is still at the same place, and he did not run. He

untied the two camels and just waived the hands for the third but camel did not move, he tried many times

but camel did not. The same monk was passing through and then after seeing this situation, he again just

waived his hands towards the camel neck and acted as the knot is removed. The camel then stood up

and started walking.

Lesson: The story sent a strong message that we all are third camel, having the psychological barrier in

our minds and do not act.

Pattern- The speaker also explained the pattern and what does it mean? The collar of the shirt has a

pattern. It has some similarity, some difference, and there is the underlying connection between them.

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“Be selfish but understand how to be selfish” -Buddha

The speaker also mentioned his work during Canada after completion his education at IIM A and his

interaction with some people which ended at the phrases at “How can u live in a country, where children

are begging” which was the turn in his life to quit the job and do something for the children.

Hand should be turned inside ourselves than outside: It was also beautifully explained that we all

keep on looking outside at the world and ignoring the things, criticizing others but it should be opposite

and we should look inward and think that, what we can do for the problems that exist in the society, how

we should change ourselves for the betterment of the society? Then turning the mirror from outside to the

inside and what we can do can change the situation!

“Satyamev Jayate” story from a village of “gehlor” Bihar was shown and explained that how a small

incident of breaking a pot of soil and hurt in the leg, made a villagers change the way a farmer acted. He

broke the mountain without any support and made a route pass; the 70 km route from the village to the

nearest market was cut down to 7 km. This showed us how a small incident can change the way we act

and work and make the things happen what we need is the perspective of looking the things the way they

are. It was also the story of determination and dedication for a cause.

The class went on to individual students and told to think of a problem that worry them most and then ask

questions and keep the things in the mind.

Who is responsible for it?

What can u do for it?

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What is being?

Inner state

Mind

Feeling, liking, disliking

Thoughts

One story was mentioned where Children were playing and shouting. The neighbor person was frustrated

and asked the person of the house why you are not doing anything for it, and the person replied “I came

from my mother funeral.”

“Leadership is the responsibility” : a responsible person is a leader.

Reframe it: There are problems that occurs many times the good way is to, reframe the problem and

work accordingly, if you not able to solve the problem then there could be no problem but the way you

are seeing it.

The good way to reframe and act is:

Turn judgment into curiosity

Turn conflict into shared inquiry

Turn defensiveness into self-reflection

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other- J F Kennedy

Leadership is an influence even if you can influence you, then you are a leader it should not be only on

the other. A person could be considered as a leader even if he influenced his own behavior.

“We are not passengers we are the crew”: We all have the same destiny, and are willing to work for it.

Bonfire Night

The “bofire dohe” was an USP enjoyed few good moments lived some moments could be better to say; in

the end life is not about money, name and fame it‟s the moments that we spend and the memories that

we left.

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Learning Diary

It was life awakening session today; there are so many unanswered questions that have left me curious.

Are we living in an equal and justifiable society? What about rich and poor gap, what about resource

allocation, life, and death. The first day is brainstorming session left us with, few good videos, some

unanswered questions and hoped for something better for the society.

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Everything is blurred; it seems I am on a loop and repeating myself. Mind is questioning my existence.

Deep silence that is difficult to answer. The winter school was very good exposure of the facets of life and

inspire to make a difference in the lives of downtrodden.