For many years, I followed outstanding diverse initiatives of the private domain to face the needs of more vulnerable people. They are of incalculable value for the direct good done and as inspiration for people to take forward their dormant ideas.
They gave birth to several articles to share my admiration. I also noticed how greedy many can be to the point of treating others without any sense of humanity.
Positioning as a philanthropist or an exploiter depends mainly on personal sensitivity and the rational elaboration on poverty and wealth and the role each feels called to undertake, to diminish significantly huge differences or let them aggravate by omission.
The NGO and philanthropist lawyers can teach about human suffering, hunger and missing resources to overcome shortcomings. The best still is to explain this in primary and secondary schools and Colleges. It is when no one forgets.
Poor people are poor because they have no money to buy the raw materials to elaborate and sell whatever they can do. And they can do a lot. The banks do not lend them, and the private usurers charge very high interest, leaving practically nothing for their work.
On microcredits, Prof Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, had clear ideas: he never asked people what kind of undertaking the credit was for; he was sure that each one knew better how to employ it to obtain the outcomes for the sustenance of the family and to pay back the loan.
At all times, one of the prominent roles of the States was to collect money from taxes and fees to promote the well-being of the population and the development of everyone – education and instruction, primary healthcare, security, etc.-. And mainly to help those who have bereft the means of sustenance.
After the Independence of India, the Soviet-style economic model adopted was probably the leading cause of economic stagnation. Of course, the lack of preparation of the top managers of the production institutions, whether cooperatives or industrial companies, created and owned by the State, caused the waste of resources, with no knowledge of the business, accumulating losses in a country already left poor by the colonizers.
The inability of the Government to generate funds to solve the main problems detected after the independence made notable personal or cooperative initiatives (with no intervention of the Government) emerge with vigour to help the poor strata. I remember some of them:
– The Federation of Milk Cooperatives was incepted in Anand (Gujarat) in 1947 (owns the brand AMUL), which was replicated all over India. It was the starting point for making India the number one milk producer from 1997 on. Verghese Kurien had a vital role in making milk marketing Cooperatives very successful, paying well to the associates on the spot and never refusing the milk they brought, even in the rainy season when milk production per cow or buffalo is 2.5 times the one in dry seasons. Today, this Federation counts on 3.6 million co-operators/micro-entrepreneurs;
– Jaipur Foot, created in 1968, makes and fits prosthetic feet or legs for a paltry amount, allowing those in need to live an almost everyday life;
– Barefoot College emerged in Tilonia, Rajasthan, in 1972, among the poorest populations that are rapidly evolving, learning to install and maintain solar panels for power production, install and maintain pumps for water irrigation, learn water harvesting, etc.;
– Aravind Eye Care System, founded in 1976, grew from a tiny 11-bed eye clinic to now owning 14 hospitals. Only 40% pay their bill, while the others are treated free of charge or with high discounts. Today (2022/23), they have:
– Tertiary Hospitals…7;
Secondary Hospitals…7
– Community Eye Clinics…6; Vision Centres…107
The patients served were:
– Total outpatients Examinations…5,76 Million
– Surgeries, Laser & other procedures…… 704,378
– Spectacles dispensed.…827,729
– 50% of procedures are free or steeply subsidized
– Microcredit initiatives to micro-lending to people with low incomes; an Enormous variety of Self-help groups appeared, which are an improvement of individual microcredits;
– Myriad of other social initiatives among NGOs, Foundations, Charities, etc.…
In due course, the revival of the economy took off in India, starting in 1991, with the change of the economic model from the Soviet type to one of the free initiative. Then, many entrepreneurs launched very profitable projects in Information Technology, Telecommunications, Pharmaceutical products, Food industries, Consumption goods, Automobiles, Tourist enterprises, Textiles, etc., with a quick and enormous valuation of the capital invested and impressive growth.
Indian billionaires
A report said India has the third-largest billionaires (Cfr. Knight Frank’s 2022 Wealth Report), with 145 in 2021.
Each of the billionaires has vast potential to do a lot of good. They are worth it to the extent that their assets are applied to improve educational and health infrastructures or to ensure minimum living conditions for everyone.
While amassing their vast fortunes, they must have developed business and philanthropic initiatives, creating many jobs, I’m sure. Now, it is the moment of a new impulse, as many poor people still await their turn, mainly in the big cities, where many homeless need urgent attention.
According to the Wealth Report 2022, the number of Indian households with assets worth over $30 million has increased by 11% in the last year. It currently stands at 458,000. They have a bright opportunity to become interventive in the social field, helping those in need.
Exploitation in the caste system
Profound asymmetries persist, with many poor and needy. Many will undoubtedly be the target of immediate attention from the wealthy. They will help raise the level of well-being of the poorest. I note that among them is a high percentage of malnourished children. It is urgent not to let them suffer the consequences of poor nutrition during their whole life, in their physical and intellectual development.
One group of ill-treated people has much to do with the old caste system. The powerful and the upper strata of society are taking advantage and exploiting the vulnerable, with no one to defend them from the greed of the powerful. NGOs, philanthropic lawyers, and the media can help overcome the situation, make the exploited aware of their rights, and help them go to the courts. All this can be the best way to empower them.
Unhappily, the stratification and relatively stable positioning according to castes take time to make them react and think freely, fairly and justly. In the meantime, there is a need for firm complaints and intervention from all those concerned with exploitation.
All related matters deserve a comprehensive discussion in the media and privately to make people, explorers and exploited, conscious of their rights, obligations and abuses.
(The writer is Professor at AESE-Business School (Lisbon), at IIM Rohtak (India), and author of The Rise of India)
