GOONJ NGO and Collection Drives

Observation:
Poverty is not visible to those who do not want to see it. People get comfortable with their lives, with multi-lakh pay packages, and forget about those whose income is barely sufficient for only one meal a day. Such people struggle to survive every day. For them, it is not a question of getting the best of education, or the best of clothes, but just the ability to read and write and clothe themselves. In this fast paced world, we forget about such people who are struggling for each day of their lives. An organization that is trying to keep alive this feeling of helping the poor is GOONJ.

Suggestion:
GOONJ is a voluntary organization working towards making cloth a matter of concern. The organization channelises the vast stocks of everyday necessities-form clothes, utensils to medicines-lying as idle surplus in the urban homes, as a substantial economic resource for the poor in the far flung village of India.

GOONJ Started with just 67 clothes in 1998, and subsequently , its work has spread to 21 states with more than 40,000 kgs of material being channelised every month. The credit for this success goes to the many RWAs, corporates, schools and a force of over 300 enthusiastic and inspired volunteers. GOONJ looks after all the logistics of the collection camp right from providing the communication material to managing the camp and transportation of material. It would be nice if residents of sectors / societies could take initiatives, and organize collection drives in their locality, for the noble cause.

As a resident of a sector 33 of NOIDA, I have volunteered to conduct a drive like this. The camp coincides with the Independence day celebrations. I don't know how much of feeling I would be able to stir up in people to encourage them to give few surplus material to the needy, but am glad I made this effort. Irrespective of the response that I may get for this, I can sleep with the satisfaction that I tried and did whatever I could to help the poor.

Replacing wooden wheels of Bullock Carts

The bullock cart (also known as a bullock wagon or bullock team) is a common means of transportation used traditionally since ancient times in many parts of the world. They are still used today where modern vehicles are too expensive or the infrastructure does not favor them. Bullock comes from the old English for castrated male cattle. Used especially for carrying goods, the bullock cart is pulled by one or several bullocks or oxen. The cart (or a jinker) is attached to a bullock team by a special chain attached to yokes, but a rope may also be used for one or two animals. The driver and any other passengers sit on the front of the cart, while load is placed in the back.

Observation:

The invention of the WHEEL definitely brought about a revolution of its own. It made transportation of goods much easier. Traditionally, the Bullock Cart wheels are made of different types of wood and sometimes, the rim is covered with metal sheet as well.

Suggestion:

It is a well known fact that rubber tyres fitted on wheels use lesser force as compared to wooden wheels. Charles Goodyear, and John Dunlop have established this quite conclusively. However, when the entire world is moving towards better cars and tyres every day, there are still thousands of bullock carts that still have wooden wheels.

The result:

• Excessive load on the bullocks, leading to fatigue and health issues related to the animal.
  
• Speed of the carts is slow.
  
• Efficiency of the bullock-carts is low.

What can be done about it :

The Government of India can undertake replacing all the wooden wheels with that of rubber tyres suitable for farming. This would not only decrease the load on a vast majority of animals , but also increase the efficiency of work (be it transportation or farming). A small increase per bullock-cart would accrue to a huge amount for the entire country. Second hand tyres are not that exorbitant. The owners of the bullock cart may not be financially well off to invest in the tyres themselves. However, where the government can spend millions, a few thousand more for the 'common man' would go a long way in improving the condition of people and the bullocks in many villages of the country.

Reusable Cloth Bags To Replace Polythene Bags

The credit for this post goes solely to my good friend Nandini Paniker. She wrote to me about the reusable cloth bags in response to an earlier post of mine titled "Multi-compartment Shopping Bags". Her idea is as follows:

Observation:

Vegetables and fruits when bought from the daily vegetable market, or even the supermarket, need to sorted later. This not only is an added burden on time and energy, but is also quite a monotonous task. The other alternative is to use 'Plastic / Nylon Covers' which again is not advisable from an environmental point of view.

Suggestion:

Nandini suggested carrying cloth bags to the markets, which would be extremely helpful in segregating the groceries right from the point they are picked up. The cloth for these bags need to be really thin, so that they can be directly put into the refrigerator, and the vegetables can have ample ventilation to breath.

Citing example of her mother, Nandini also suggested that these cloth bags can be readily made at home from old saris. My mother, too, on hearing this idea has made many such bags, and is having a much simpler time sorting vegetables every week. (A photograph of the bags that she stitched is uploaded above) A sample bag can be given to the local tailor, who can then churn out such small bags out of the surplus cloth left after stitching. It would not only lead to an increase in his revenue, but will also help people become more aware of the environmental issues related to use of plastic.

Thanks Nandini for a brilliant idea!

Increasing the efficiency of Pedi-Cabs

The "Cycle Rickshaw" or the "Pedi Cabs" is a very important and basic means of transportation for the common man, especially in developing countries. Not only does it provide pollution free means of conveyance, but also one that is affordable. The only place that it may really lag when compared to other means of transportation is the speed.

It is estimated that close to 2 million cycle rickshaws ply on Indian roads, carrying about 6–8 billion passenger / year. The exact number could be even greater, since there are no reliable records available. In some cities and small towns, they are the major means of transport. They provide employment to more than two million rickshaw pullers, are maneuverable, completely non-polluting and hence an environment-friendly means of transport.

Observation:

A normal pedi cab, as shown in picture, would have a speed of about 10 km/hr. The driver sweats it out in the Sun, gets tired due to the laborious nature of his work, but is still not able to earn enough since the rickshaw does not achieve the desired efficiency.

If I understand correctly, the height of the rickshaw body has a direct effect on the speed and efficiency of a vehicle. If the height is decreased, the torque decreases, the stability increases, and hence the speed increases. Bases on these observations, there are a few suggestions.

Suggestion:
In an attempt to bring back the glory days of the Cycle rickshaw, the structure of cycle rickshaw needs to be changed.

1. The early models used to weigh over 120 kgs, but this can be reduced to 90 kgs by means of an integral tubular frame that has excellent structural qualities. The weight can be further reduced by a fiber glass body which is so popular in VELO TAXIS (Germany).
2. The provision of a multi gear system specifically designed for rickshaws will give the rickshaw driver a tremendous advantage. He will gets less stressed and can ply more in a day without harming his health.
3. Most importantly, reducing the center of gravity by lowering the seating area of rickshaw or peddy cab would not only improve the stability of vehicle, but also increase efficiency. Independent studies on the rickshaw drivers plying these modern rickshaws have shown that they can ply them for a third longer and average earnings have gone up by close to 60%. Not only this, the speed of these rickshaws would greatly increase from 10kmph to 15-20 kmph.
   

A live example of the disparity in designs of Rickshaws can be seen in the pedi cabs of Delhi and that of Nanital. The ones in Delhi are built much higher off the ground, and hence are much slower. On the other hand, the ones playing on the roads of Nanital are faster due to a minor change in design.

A lot many variations have already been proposed for Pedi cabs, right from having a small motor, to solar powered ones. A lot of work is already being done to improve the Pedi Cabs. However, until the time VELO TAXIS or its equivalent is introduced in India, steps can definitely be taken to improve the efficiency of Rickshaws by a simple lowering of the foot board and the seat , making the lives of drivers much easier and better!

Mentorpolis Goes Online!

A good friend of mine came up with this unique idea of connecting people and went on to start a new venture called Mentorpolis. A blog dedicated solely to applaud months of his hard work. His venture only reiterates that efforts do pay off....

Observation:

Most of the time, we are unable to get into good institutions both in India/abroad because of "Lack of Information" or "Guidance". Preparation for entrance exams of all levels can also turn directionless, if we don't know how to go about preparing for that particular exam. Mentorpolis is an effort in that direction to help plug that gap on an individual basis.

Suggestion:

Mentorpolis is an effort to establish a new communication channel that connects mentees who seek academic / professional advice, with accomplished and suitable mentors, via one-to-one interaction. It provides mentees with personal guidance and direct access to mentors, who can help them make informed decisions.

Mentees could be high school students, undergraduates, young professionals, whereas mentors are students and professionals who once were in the same situation, but have now made it big : and thus precisely understand problems faced by mentees and want to share their wisdom in a nurturing manner.

I am sure all aspiring students would greatly benefit from this venture, since this is not just an online portal where one can post their queries, but it also provides a great opportunity for aspiring students to connect to a mentor of one's choice on a one-to-one basis.

Also read:

• How it works
• Find a mentor
• Popular guidance areas: GMAT , GRE , TOEFL , CAT , MBA in US
• Become a mentor on Mentorpolis
  

Vocational Training using Mobile Units

Observation:

The vocational training is predominantly the responsibility of the Government. However, the growth in training facilities is far behind the actual requirement and this has resulted in huge shortage of trained, certified artisans. This is primarily because of a mismatch between the vocational training needs and training facilities. The training facilities are mainly located in cities and big towns whereas the requirement is at the ‘Kasba’ or ‘Moufissil’ town levels or even at village level.

Suggestion:

Individually, the requirement of training artisans at these places is small and the training requirement gets saturated in a short period. Creation of fixed training facilities will be costly and will not be fully utilized. To meet this special requirement it is important that a flexible approach in delivery of training is adopted using “Mobile Training Units”.

This will facilitate imparting of vocational training to a very large number of artisans who are not able to join mainstream education through Industrial Training Institutes. There is a huge untapped market which is available for training and certification of artisans. There is also space for large number of players in this market because of the special demographic condition in India and South East Asia.

The outcome can be measured by the unemployment rate of the area where the project has been launched after a few months of providing the vocational training to artisans along with the increase in the average earnings of these men after training.

The “Mobile Vocational Training Unit” model is proposed to be implemented in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India, which has a large youth population, and severe shortage of training / higher education facilities. This can subsequently be replicated in other states of India/Countries after necessary fine-tuning.

Business Model:

• Engage retired railway and defense personnel who are master craftsman as Instructors and provide them with “Mobile Training Units” on partnership basis.
• The training software and hardware to be centrally procured and disbursed.
• The training curriculum to be kept uniform with large component of multimedia modules.
• Get Government registration for Certification.
• Local personnel to be given preference for such assignments as they are familiar with the geography of the region.

The above model will keep the cost of operation minimum.

Infrastructure: Mobile training vans (e.g. Eicher LCVs converted to accommodate two related trades.)

Partnerships: With local Primary/Secondary schools, Panchayats.

Customers: Youth in the age group of 16-30 years.

Revenue model: Fees from the students (artisans), government aid, certification fees and sponsorship from Corporate.

Cost of Capital: (Assumptions)

• Capital cost of one “Mobile training unit” will be approximately Rs. 6 lakhs.
• Depreciated over 5 years : Rs. 6 lakhs/5 = Rs. 1.2 Lakhs per annum
• Interest burden @ 10% p.a. = Rs. 0.6 Lakhs per annum
• Total cost : Rs. 1.8 Lakhs per annum

Cost of Operation: (Assumptions)

• Cost of instructor: Rs. 10,000 per month
• Cost of helper : Rs. 4000 per month
• Running cost of unit: Rs 10,000 per month
• Total : Rs 24,000 per month
• Overhead: 50% of the above = 0.5 * Rs. 24,000 = Rs. 12,000
• Total cost of Operation per MU p.a.= (Rs. 24000+Rs 12000) * 12 = Rs 36000*12 = Rs 4,32,000

Revenue generated: (Assumption)

• Training per unit per day in hours = 8 hours
• No of days per month = 25 days
• Batch Size = 15
• Total no. of trainee hours per unit = 25*8*15 = 3000 trainee hours per unit per month
• Fees per trainee hour = Rs. 20
• Total fees per unit per month = 3000 * 20 = Rs. 60000
• Total Revenue per annum = 12 * 60000 = Rs. 7,20,000

SURPLUS = Revenue – (Cost of Capital + Cost of Operation)

= Rs. 7,20,000 – (1,80,000 + 4,32,000) = 7,20,000 – 6,12,000 = 1,08,000 per MU/p.a

Risks:

• Change in government policy
• Delays in payment by government agencies

The project will be viable with 10 Mobile Units with an investment of approximately Rs. 60 Lakhs.

Multi-Compatment Shopping Bags

An idea that my sister came up with while shopping for vegetables in a weekly market :

Observation:

The only reason why I use plastic:

When I buy vegetables like okra, beans, green chilies etc., plastic bags come in very handy ensuring an ease of putting things away without first having to go through the painstaking task of separating each type. I recall the time when I newly returned from Germany, and after seeing their care with reusing plastic, I made my mother go to the market with just a cloth bag. We came back with a week’s worth of green veggies and to my mortification the greens were so well mixed together that it looked as if they were meant to be that way. My sister couldn't help chuckling at my musings and commented that it is the law of physics, entropy of the universe…dodging the potato that I threw at her. It took me larger part of an hour to separate and stock our refrigerator.

I wanted to apply methods that have worked somewhere else, without realizing that each problem has to be tackled individually. What worked for me in Germany did not work in India. My brain working in overdrive, I wanted to prove it to my mother that there had to be a better way of doing this. She had laughingly handed me the bag after getting home to organize the mess that I had inadvertently created.

Suggestion:

Necessity is the mother of all invention. I hit upon the idea that we could at least reuse the plastic bags. No sooner than I had said it , the idea seemed like a halfway attempt. It was then suddenly seeing my mom sitting at the sewing machine that I hit upon a better solution. We see plastic everywhere and reusing them also is not going to reverse a trend. What needs to be done is designing specific shopping bags with various compartments ( made out of cloth !! eureka!!) that can handle all the veggies but still make sure that nothing gets mixed up. The vendors can be given these free or at nominal costs to promote the use of such "Multi compartment Bags". Over a period of time, plastic needs to be completely banned. I wish it happens soon because I crave a country without plastic bags littered over its landscape.

Educating One And All

Well, this post is totally inspired by my new work profile : that of a lecturer. Venturing into a new line of work has made me think about the education system and the number of people who are fortunate enough to make use of it. The remaining, especially those who in no manner can afford it, remain illiterate.

Observation:
First and foremost, the problem arises as people don't have enough money to buy their way to even Primary schools. Though the government has started a number of municipal schools, the system suffers from lack of teachers as well as students willing to study when they can probably earn by begging/adhoc jobs.

Well, obviously, everyone does not have a socialistic approach to life, and truthfully, it is quite difficult to devote one's life to the upliftment of the society.

Suggestion:
I feel that Primary/Basic education is really not that difficult to impart. Students enrolled in all types of undergraduate and graduate programme (Be it Arts, Science, Engineering Medicine or Law) can be used to impart basic knowledge of different spectrum to children. Even a voluntary contribution of 1 hr per person per week to educate a child is a good amount. In an engineering college with a 4 yr degree programme and an intake of 500 could mean 2000 hrs per week, which is a HUGE amount if all are willing for this. (But that is being too optimistic)To add, if the students are taught during the college hours, it would give college students too some incentive to be part of a revolutionizing process.

What I am proposing is groups of say 5 universities/colleges to get together depending on the their location, identify and adopt a group of 50 students amongst them, and then proceed to teach them the basics of education, using the help of their own students. 50 students divided amongst 5 colleges can even be given enough old clothing, and perhaps a one time meal as well, which could be incentive enough for the children to come to study.

I am not saying this would be easy. Identifying potential students, connecting to them, managing the whole process, is definitely going to be very difficult. But basic education can definitely be imparted to all those who don't know how to read/write. This would surely go a long way in improving the literacy level of our country and making people more aware on a variety of issues.

This idea again is not new. A lot of work is being done by Volunteers of National Service Scheme (NSS). IIT Madras is doing quite a commendable work on this. However, it is just a few individuals who are trying to help the poor in this regard. Most of us are not even aware of schemes such as NSS, and even if we are, have no guidance how to go about helping. Making something like this available at college /university level would really help students connect to needy people via these Universities and partner NGOs. The Government's 'Education for all' (Sarv Siksha Abhiyaan) is a similar step wherein a number of schools have been set up with Governmental aid. Also, a similar programme called Teach India has also been launched (on the lines of Teach America). However, in all these, the participation of already established educational institutions is quite negligible and the involvement of college students is negligible. They definitely can contribute and make a huge difference, not only by teaching others, but in the way they perceive the society after experiencing the difficulties while teaching a child.

To conclude, I strongly feel that each one of us, who has had the privilege of receiving education, should help someone else too get it.

Floating Gardens To Tackle Food Scarcity

Observation:

The earth is covered only with 1/4 th of land, while the remaining 3/4th is purely water. Arable land is an even smaller percentage of the total land available. There is indeed scarcity of land for both habitation, and cultivation. With population growing by leaps and bounds, there are bound to be issues arising from using agricultural land for habitation purpose. Consequently, the agricultural produce is hardly sufficient for all in this world.

Suggestion:

Oceans receive ample amount of rainfall (fresh water) which largely goes untapped. Also, the sunlight received in may parts of the ocean is in abundance and also suitable for growth of plants. The problem: there is no land there to tap the rainfall and sunlight

The idea here is to make small floating platforms, about 2 feet deep (since most vegetables do not really require depth more than that) appropriate material. These farms can be self sufficient making use of the solar/wind energy for power requirements. These small blocks can be then joined together to make a large farm / garden which can be positioned in the oceans that receive good rainfall and sunlight. During some change of weather, these platforms can be relocated to a different part of the world. These can even be brought to the shores from time to time, the produce harvested, and a new crop planted again.

This same technique can be used for creating huge gardens of flowers, vegetables, pulses, corn , poultry farms to rear chickens and pigs etc. This methodology would specially be useful for countries that are suffering from serious shortage of food, or those which do not have enough land for cultivation.

Similar projects have been implemented by countries such as Japan for making "Floating Airports". Although, the platforms here are not quite floating in this case, and cannot be relocated, but these definitely solve the problem of not having enough land.

An elementary research shows that people have already come up with this kind of an idea, there are even books on this , and if I am not wrong, there are a few places where "Floating Fish Farms" have been implemented as well. However, I still feel that not many people are aware of this and this methodology to increase agricultural produce is still largely untapped. If implemented, millions of people would benefit from it!!