Deeply concerned over the widening divide between the two Indias - the developed and the underdeveloped - and the lack of an inclusive development path that India is currently on, Oxfam India has given the call for closing the gap between four groups of people -- women and men; Dalits and non Dalits; tribals and non-tribals; and Muslims and non-Muslims.
``Among all poverty indicators, it is the dalits, tribals and Muslims who are found to be worse off than the others. While there has been a growing assertion among the dalits led by its middle class intellectuals and politicians, a similar pattern is yet to emerge among the tribals and the Muslims,’’ says Nisha Agrawal, Chief Executive Officer, Oxfam India, adding : ``And despite positive changes in the policy environment and progressive legislation, Indian women continue to face discrimination on all fronts, including inside and outside their homes.
While India has already become the third largest economy (in terms of purchasing power parity) after USA and China and as per the World Bank and has seen consistent growth rates between 6-9% for the last five years, second only to China, even today, according to World Bank parameters of 1.25 $ a day, 456 million people or approximately 42% of the people in India are poor. It is also worth noting that every third poor in the world is an Indian; every third illiterate in the world is an Indian too and approximately half of its children are malnourished. India also ranks deplorably high in maternal deaths ( in many states higher than sub-Saharan Africa ).
Oxfam India is now seeking to focus its programs in a few key thematic and geographic areas so as to maximize impact. It will focus its work in seven states that have above average poverty rates and have lagged in the post-liberalization period and would require strategic intervention: Assam , Bihar , Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Besides the focus states, Oxfam India will also be working on urban poverty issues in key cities across the country.
``Since roughly two-thirds of poverty is concentrated in these states, Oxfam India will focus two thirds of its resources here and use one third of its resources to respond to specific issues in the rest of India . In view of the increasing number of urban pockets of acute poverty, it will also include an urban component in its programs and address urban-specific issues.’’ Nisha informed.
In Bengaluru, Oxfam India has already identified certain projects and programs aimed at reducing the gap between the urban rich and the poor. ``Even in a wealthy city like Bengaluru, we can see the two India ’s existing side by side and we need to engage with both’’ informs Nisha.
Oxfam India will also be focussing its efforts on building the capacity of its staff, partners and communities to understand as well as address discrimination by making people aware of their own perceptions, prejudices and facilitating an understanding of others. It would work towards building partners capacity to address communal conflict and foster peace.
The other key areas of work for the future would be to influence the role of private sector in poverty reduction and also explore key aspects of India ’s growing role at the South Asia regional as well as international level from the perspective of influencing policies and programs for a poverty free region and world. It will also seek to build an active and international platform of civil society groups across northern and southern countries.
``Oxfam India is seeking to gradually transform itself from essentially being a grant administering and monitoring agency to an active member of Indian civil society and a rights based advocacy organization. Our advocacy will be based on the grassroots work we support. To understand better what is working well and what is not, we are committed to set some of the key processes in place, and work towards setting up community based monitoring systems to track and use the outcomes to enhance program quality and ensure rights based approach in programmatic interventions,’’ says Nisha
The new Oxfam India partnership policy envisages both funding and non-funding partnerships with a wide range of development actors—grassroots NGOs, academic institutions, research think tanks, national and global advocacy NGOs, etc. The proposed patterns of funding relationship include maintaining the diversity of partner size (micro, small, medium and large) but establishing limits for each category; establishing longer term relationships with partners and to fund each partner for a maximum 10-12 year cycle (through two strategy periods); and wherever feasible, provide core funding rather than project-by-project funding to partners.
At the moment, Oxfam India is upscaling its fundraising operations across various cities, to expand its supporter base and to build active citizenship by engaging the rich and middle class in India in addressing the many development challenges facing our country. ``Our experiments with running in-house fund-raising operations in Bangalore and New Delhi have paid off. We are happy that the citizens of Bengaluru contributed generously to the Kosi floods in Bihar and recently to the South India floods. We also have fund-raising offices now in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Chandigarh besides multiple operations in metro cities including Bengaluru,’’ says Nisha.
Oxfam India would also be organizing a unique fund-raising event called Trailwalker in February next year. Trailwalker is an event that involves walking 100 kms in teams of four for the purpose of raising funds to fight poverty and injustice. It is a signature Oxfam event and very popular in many countries around the world. ``It is a great opportunity for the rich and the middle class Indians, such as those working in the IT and corporate sector in Bengaluru to contribute to India ’s development while participating in a fun activity like this,’’ informs Nisha.
The trail identified is from Mysore to Bengaluru and corporates would be participating in a big way. ``There are teams which have completed the entire trial in 12 hours and there are others who take 30-48 hours. It is an event that tests our wits and challenges us to look at poverty and injustice,’’ Nisha adds.
