Employment out of the Box

At a B-school gathering recently in New Delhi, a very well-known corporate leader pointed out that if people are under the impression that students passing out from the IITs and IIMs are going to build the nation, they are highly mistaken. Of course, these young learners represent the cream of our student community, but that’s not real India? A handful of these professionals, who stay back after all the brain drain is over, are hardly enough to manage all the enterprises we have? And, that’s precisely why so many B-schools have come up in the last five years or so? The nation needs more professionals, not just degree-holders, but those who will contribute to its growth.

Every year the IITs and IIMs are churning out intellectuals who are good at strategy and planning, but the actual implementation is done by management trainees and executives who are fresh out of the more than 800 odd business schools that have emerged all over the country. Organizations are constantly searching for an army of salespeople who can roam the streets and sell products and services. The demand is so huge that today’s Rocket Singhs are hopping from one job to the other, bargaining for more and more lucrative packages. Naturally, these young boys and girls are not too concerned about employment? Rather, they are more worried about their employability – the ability to switch jobs comfortably.

When the so-called recession hit us two years back, companies used it as an excuse to put their hiring processes on hold. Those in the banking sector, who were earlier known as the biggest recruiters in B-schools, stopped hiring in bulk from these institutions. Things have started improving, but the market clearly demonstrates that jobs are not long-lasting. That’s because targets are so unrealistic that many employees leave within the first one year of joining. The stress is too much for them to bear.

Coming back to real India, most of these B-schools have boys and girls who are neither born nor brought up in metros. But when they migrate to places like Delhi and Bangalore, looking for an opportunity to study in a professional institution, they probably don’t realize it that things are not going to be very smooth. Their dreams go for a toss when they realize that the plush air-conditioned offices in the heart of the cities are not meant for them. Welcome, my dear Rocket Singh, to the hard Indian market reality.

In such a scenario, there are two questions raised. One, what should a fresh MBA expect from the employment scenario? Two, how should Management teachers train their students to face the tough competitive work environment? To begin with, MBA aspirants must realize that besides sheer hard work, organizations expect them to be in sync with Indian socio-economic and cultural realities because Indian customers are starkly different from their global counterparts. Clearly linked to this is the answer to the second question. Management teachers must realize that the industry is looking for only skilled people – those who can effectively merge theory with practice. So if a firm is hiring a salesperson, it does so on the basis of what the candidate can do rather than what he or she has picked up from his /her books and lectures. In other words, companies are looking for high achievers who can sweat it out in the fields rather than armchair intellectuals who can simply attend boardroom meetings. If that is the scenario, are these 800 odd institutions doing anything to enhance the skills of their students?

It’s indeed an irony that while on one hand, companies are finding it difficult to get good skilled professionals, and on the other hand, although the recession seems to be over, bulk hirings have completely stopped. Even banks and insurance companies are not doing it. Organizations in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) category are hardly looking at fresh graduates. And, every time a company comes into a campus, all it seems to be interested in is to get in as many good salespeople as possible. Mainstream Finance or HR jobs are hardly available. Every company is looking for Rocket Singhs who are honest, dedicated and hard-working. So if Management teachers are not training their students to hard sell, they are probably not showing them the mirror.

Institutions that have understood the current employment scenario are utilizing their resources for skills-development. The more enterprising ones are looking at innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship more seriously. That’s because to beat the competition, one must come up with something different which is possible only through innovations and creativity. And, those who have the passion have the option of being their own boss. Entrepreneurship is, in fact, the key to our future. If Management teachers can motivate even a fraction of their students to start their own ventures, they will be making a great contribution to the development of the nation.

All said and done, in the present employment scenario, students and teachers must together try and make a difference. For this, both have to look out of the box. Last year, when the Indian Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) got its students placed faster that those at IIM Ahmedabad, it revealed a lot about the future. It told us in clear-cut terms that the niche sector is here to stay. Earlier unexplored areas like social sector management, corporate social responsibility and rural marketing will need good professionals to manage them effectively. Similarly, the expanding healthcare and education sector are also going to require competent MBAs. For all these professions, besides managerial skills, professionals need to be socially-sensitive. Hence, B-schools will have to adopt a new curriculum that will incorporate academic elements from humanities, social sciences, social entrepreneurship and cultural studies, including theatre and literature.  

Every one of us has the right to be properly employed. But for that we must plan properly. Teachers have a great role to play in this. Through continuous mentoring and counselling, students have to be shown the mirror and then trained to take up a fruitful career. Otherwise, we will soon be a nation of burnt-out individuals. We will lose the joys of enjoying life. Surely, we don’t want that.

A New Ray of Hope Sweeps Bhuvad

As we enter Bhuvad at around 9 in the evening, it’s dark all over the village. Very few people are awake at this time. A flash of electricity is visible at one corner. Some village elders are closeted together, discussing an event of the day. Our car goes past the staring eyes and reaches a house from whose rooftop we hear voices. We climb up the stairs and meet some village girls sitting together and discussing a lesson with their sakhi (teacher). There are around 25 of them. Their sakhi Savitri Ben has just finished telling them a story about the hare and the tortoise in Gujarati. Now they are busy discussing what they have learnt. 

The girls stop talking the moment we enter. They already know the team members of Gantar and FICCI-CARE who often visit them. They greet them with cheers. “This is the Adoloscent Girls Learning Centre (AGLC) at Bhuvad,” Ishwar Desai, Program Executive (Ganatar) informs us. Ishwar Bhai looks after the Kutch Education Program in the Anjar and Bhachau blocks for adolescent girls. There are around 30 students enrolled at this centre. Almost 25 among them are regular for their classes. The girls are all aged between 14-18 years. They are either school dropouts or ones who never went to school. Savitri Ben, their sakhi, has studied till class XI. She is with the center for almost two years now. Most of the women in this village have never been to school. Now, some of them are encouraged to bring their girls to the center.

In a village where most people go off to sleep by evening, it’s indeed a wonder that nearly 25 girls are staying out of their homes till 10 o’clock at night and learning their lessons. Some mothers are also there listening to all that’s going on. This is the Mother’s Group, we are told. “The mothers are actively involved in all our centers. Earlier, when we started out on our mobilization drive, we had to convince them really hard. We told them that they should not let their daughters remain illiterate. Even if they learn to read and write at the elementary level, they will be much better off than their mothers, who can’t even read bus numbers,” a Gantar team member adds.

It was indeed a Herculean task. But constant counseling and talking done by AGLC volunteers eventually made the women realize the importance of getting their daughters educated. Says Dhanu Ben, a representative of the Mothers Group, “Now when our daughters go to their in-laws, they will not be like us. They will be able to read and write. They will also be able to get things done at banks and post-offices. And, when our daughters bear children, their girls will go to schools, study hard and maybe one day become teachers, doctors and lawyers.” The winds of change are beginning to show. The women of the village are realizing the importance of education. And, at night when their daughters have to go out to the center, they walk along with a torch in hand, leading them towards a better world.

Most of the girls in the villages are not free during the daytime. They work in the fields and help their male family members by removing mud and cutting crops. They wake up early in the morning and go out to fetch water. At times, they have to stand in long lines, but that’s a job that none of the male members in the family are ready to do. Once they come back home, they cook and feed the children of the house. Then they go out to work to the fields. Once they finish helping their fathers and brothers, they move on to other fields where they work for a petty sum of Rs 50 per day. When the community mobilizers went around trying to convince the villagers, they said that by sending their girls to study, the family would lose the income generated by them. In a village, where the economic conditions are not up to the mark, this income does make a lot of difference. Moreover, since the boys in the family are sent to school, it becomes difficult if the girls also follow. The villagers finally agreed to the concept of a night school. Then the girls could work during the day and later spend some time reading and writing.

The girls are all very upbeat. “We are learning to become teachers. Through education we want to change our lives. We want to apply all that we learn in our daily lives,” says Jassu Ben, a student at the center. “I can now read bus numbers. Earlier, I had to keep asking other people. But now I feel a lot more independent,” she adds. “If my daughter gets her daughters educated, I will feel very proud. I will also feel that by making my daughter go to school, I have achieved something in life,” says Dhanu Ben, the member of the Mothers Group. Sakhi Savitri Ben also agrees. “That’s why so many mothers are now keen to send their daughters here. They are proud that their daughters are not like them. They discuss village politics with their daughters. Mothers and daughters also sit together and discuss things about the male members of the family. Earlier, nobody could even think of such a thing. Now, if a male member of the family has a drinking habit, the mother and daughters discuss and devise ways of solving the problem. Some of them visit the local health center and talk to doctors about it.”

Says Dhanu Ben, “Now our girls are much more confident. They are not shy of talking to a group of men who are here to observe their center. They confidently speak to the village elders and the sarpanch. They discuss water and electricity problems with the members of the Panchayat. They don’t even mind going to Delhi and meeting the Prime Minister and telling him about the problems of our village. And, all of them want their village to progress. They want their village to look good and clean. They want good roads, schools and hospitals.” Asmita Ben and Ratan Ben, both students at the center, say they are now saving some money at the post-office. “We will use this money to educate our daughters,” says Asmita Ben. She does not mind if her daughter wishes to go to the city and study in a college. She will be too happy if that happens. She is not clear whether she will allow her daughter to marry late, but she is clear that even if she goes to her in-laws, she should continue with her studies. In case, her in-laws do not agree, she will try to convince them.

Thanks to the education drive, the girls are now more aware of their health. Once a month, they also discuss issues related to reproductive healthcare with a health worker at the Primary Health Center (PHC). The Attendant Nurse Midwife (ANM) often visits the center to talk to the girls. Their mothers also attend these talks. It becomes an education for them as well. The mothers are, in fact, so impressed that they don’t mind doing all the housework. Some of them at the center say that they have told their daughters not to worry about the housework at all. All they need to do is focus on their studies and learn. Says sakhi Savitri Ben, “We teach them Gujarati language, Elementary Maths and Social Learning. In Social Learning, they learn about their health and several village facilities. They also play several games and take part in learning activities. They have learnt how to ride a bicycle. Some of them were taken on an exposure trip to Jaipur. They visited Vanasthali Vidyapeeth, a residential university in Jaipur and they were very impressed.” Ratan Ben, who went to Jaipur, describes her feelings. “We were so surprised to see the Vidyapeeth. We could never imagine that around 5,000 girls were staying away from their families and learning at the campus. Some of them whom we met were even learning horse-riding or training to become a pilot. It was a great lesson for all of us. Tomorrow, if we get a chance to study in a place like this, we will convince our parents to allow us to go, stay there and learn.”

After Jaipur, Ratan Ben wants to visit Delhi. She liked the Raj Mahal at Jaipur. Now she wants to see the Red Fort. She is even confident that she can even travel alone. Her friend, Asmita Ben, has been to Mysore all by herself. Ratan Ben feels that if Asmita Ben could go all alone, she too can do it. But, what does she want to do at Delhi? She tells us that she wants to meet important people. Her friends also want her to take them and meet Sonia Gandhi, Uma Bharati and Vasundhara Raje. They have heard about Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi. All of them like Priyanka and want to invite her to come to their village and stay with them. “We want her to come and stay with us. We don’t want her to come only during elections and ask for votes,” says Jassu Ben, a student.

Today, education has done wonders to these girls. They can think of going out and they are no longer shy of talking to people. Says Ratan Ben, “Our elders now respect us. Our position in our families have improved. Our fathers, brothers and other village elders listen to us. Tomorrow, when we get married and move to another village, our in-laws will also respect us.” Dhanu Ben agrees. “Education has done wonders. Our girls are confident. Some of them have stepped out of the village and seen things outside. They can talk to the village elders and discuss things with their parents. It’s a great change.

But will Dhanu Ben’s daughter catch it?

An Encounter with Shastidas Baul

Shastidas Baul in Asannagar

In Asannagar, a village in Nadia district of West Bengal, Shastidas Baul can talk for hours about the philosophy of Bauls, but he hardly has an audience now. When the Kolkata-based social enterprise Banglanatak Dot Com first began its intervention in Nadia district in 2005, it organised several workshops for Baul singers with Shastidas who taught these artists the basics of Baul philosophy and the teachings of Lalan Fakir. But now, most of the villagers in Asannagar whom I met said they simply don’t have time for such things after laboring in the fields for the entire day. But more alarming was a very strong reaction from many of them who said they don't feel comfortable in Shashtidas’ company. The reasons they gave were that he is arrogant and misbehaves with people. He loses complete self-control under the influence of alcohol and to cap it all, people in his village now have an impression that he is a womaniser. During my conversation with Shastidas, he proudly said, “that’s how I am different.” On being cross-questioned, he said, “people are jealous of me. They cannot stand the fact that I am a professional artist who has got innumerable opportunities to perform abroad.” Interestingly, in his conversations never once did he even mention that he was a village tailor by profession. For close to 40 years he had a tailoring shop in the Asannagar main market area. This was revealed by other people residing in the same village and was later corroborated by the enterprise field officer at Asannagar.

When I first met Shastidas Baul in December 2010, he was all praise for the enterprise. According to him, “the social enterprise has done what the government was not able to do in so many years.” In fact, he proudly said that whenever Amitava Bhattacharya, the director of the enterprise, comes to Asannagar, he only stays at his place and nowhere else. Interestingly, when we again met him six months later in June 2011, his opinion had radically changed. He openly blamed Bhattacharya of indulging in favouritism. He said, “the social enterprise favours the artists of Gorbhanga and even at other places, it wants to promote only incompetent people.” Only six months back, Shastidas Baul had said that in Gorbhanga, Armaan Fakir and Golam Fakir were like his brothers. Six months later, he not only accused them of being “incompetent artists” but also went to the extent of alienating himself from them on religious lines, blaming them of “spreading communal feelings.”  

When we spoke to Bhattacharya, he gave us this explanation. “When our enterprise first approached Shastidas, he wanted us to set up the resource centre at Asannagar. He even showed us a plot of land where we could go ahead with the construction. We believed him and assured him that things will happen according to his plans. However, when we sat down to finalise the deal, our lawyer pointed out that after carrying out his legal investigations, he had discovered that the plot of land which Shastidas had earmarked for the resource centre was in fact a piece of disputed property. Hence, we had to shift our base to Gorbhanga where a previous ashram already existed inside the compound of Armaan Fakir’s residence. It’s there that we constructed the new building which is now the resource centre.” Shatidas told me that the director had given him very high hopes. According to the Baul philosopher, Bhattacharya had promised him, “From now on you will never look back. You will go places. I believed him. He also gave me the opportunity to perform in France and Italy. But that was all. After that he hardly kept in touch with me.” According Bhattacharya, “Performance is all about teamwork. But Shastidas is extremely unpopular among the other talented artists of his village. He has told them time and again very categorically that if they want foreign assignments, they must accept him as their guru. He has been telling the other villagers that it is only on his recommendation that the enterprise will send them abroad. In other words, he was trying to gain political mileage from his association with the social enterprise.” Bhattacharya further commented that “these people suffer from artists’ syndrome. This is a typical condition that artists go through especially after they have risen to this social status from that of farmers or agricultural labourers. The moment they get recognition as artists, the element of professional jealousy creeps in. They start thinking of themselves as superior to the rest of the people from the community. This is exactly what has destroyed Shastidas as a human being. Till the time he was a village tailor (a fact that Shastidas carefully managed not to reveal throughout our conversation) he wasn’t cut off from his community. But the moment he got recognition as an artist, he distanced himself from the other villagers. A person with such an attitude will never be able to act as a good leader for his team members.” 

When I visited Shastidas for the second time, he first asked me pointblank whether I was an agent of the enterprise or not? It was only when I convinced him that I was an independent researcher that he offered to speak to me. Moreover, when he introduced his team members, they were all young people, especially women who were housewives and for whom music was just a hobby and not a profession. Pronoti, one of the women he introduced as his team member, wasn’t a Baul singer at all. She could sing Rabindra Sangeet (Songs of Tagore) which most Bengali middle-class men and women learn while they are students. They cannot be called “professional musicians” under any circumstances. But all said and done, Shastidas does know a lot about Humanism and the philosophy of the Bauls. He has excellent oratory and presentation skills and one can keep listening to him for hours together. Also, in order to have his audience engaged, he keeps asking too many questions. According to Shaktinath Jha, an authority on Bauls, this is the dialogue technique that Lalan Fakir used to connect with his audience. Shastidas also tries to use the same technique but according to Jha, the difference between these two individuals is that Lalan Fakir always knew the answers himself, but Sashtidas does not know the answers to many of the questions that he himself asks. Hence Jha’s interpretation is that “one must accept Sashtidas’ arguments with a pinch of salt.”

It was at Asannagar that as a researcher I got the first glimpse of class differentiation. By trying to hide his past, Sashtidas in fact wants to project himself as someone who is different from the rest of the community. With the help of philosophy, he tries to project himself as an intellectual who belongs to a different class altogether. At the Fakiri Utsav when I conducted live interviews with Bharati Sarkar and Basanti Das, two women Baul singers who had come to Gorbhanga for participating in the festival along with Sashtidas, he sat through the entire interview and often interjected and corrected whatever they were saying. When I asked Bharati Sarkar about whether she had any problems in managing her home as well as a professional career as a Baul singer, Sashtidas immediately answered back by saying, “Everybody in her family is proud of the fact that I have accepted her as my disciple. The people of my village know that I am not an ordinary human-being; I am an enlightened person and anybody who associates with me will achieve enlightenment.”

My investigations further revealed that Asannagar has several talented Baul singers like Prafulla Biswas, Nikhil Biswas, Ranjit Gosain and Nikhil Gayen. But Sashtidas never speaks highly of any of them. His own brother-in-law Biren Das Baul is regarded as a doyen among Baul singers in his region. However, Sashtidas dismisses him as an alcoholic. When I asked him about Biren Das Baul his answer was, “Everyone cannot be a Baul. Biren Das begins his day with alcohol and the entire day he is drunk. He is never in his senses. How can such an intoxicated individual be a Baul? I feel ashamed to say that he is my relative.” Sashtidas wanted to climb up the social ladder with the help of the enterprise. His disillusionment with the enterprise reveals his frustration at not having achieved what he wanted to do. In June 2012 when I met him at Asannagar, he told me that he had started his own non-governmental organisation through which he wanted to promote “genuine” artists rather than the “incompetent” ones patronised by the enterprise. For that he was working with Sumana Hazra, a Kolkata-based documentary filmmaker, who is also conducting workshops with schoolchildren where they are taught various creative things like music, dance, pottery, puppet-making etc. by folk artists. But when I spoke to Hazra even she was not very hopeful of this new venture. “I wanted to start a school at Asannagar, but Sashtidas has not made my task easy at all. Rather, he has already delayed our project by a couple of months. The problem with people like Sashtidas is that they think since we are making documentary films, we have a lot of money. They don’t realise how hard it is for us to raise the money. Although Sashtidas has not stated it in as many words, but I think he is probably waiting for me to pay him a substantial amount before he joins me in this work. This is exactly how good initiatives are killed.”