BM: The way forward - a thought for National Meet at Jaipur
rake...@gmail.com
"bharatmission.pdf". Simply click on
www.nyayabhoomi.org/bharatmission.pdf and you will be able to download
the file instantly.
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Bharat Uday Mission is a nascent organization. We are a few thousand
online people loosely stringed together by a common zeal but little
else - no structure, no leadership, no coordinated programmes, and no
common policies or objectives. BUT... at least we have made a
beginning. We shall build on what we have.
Bharat Uday Mission needs to evolve into a properly structured and
organized group with clearly identifiable and executable deliverables,
backed by carefully thought out plans and strategy. We want a set of
leaders who will select one amongst them (President) to lead the
Mission. The President will select his own team and he needs to be
provided with some initial resources.
The Mission should evolve principles, policies, plans and programmes
for nation building at two levels - as a social organization first,
and as a group directly in command of the nation's destiny for later.
Since politics is not and cannot be even on the horizon yet, this
document is a proposed starting point for the Mission as a social
organization - the one with a definitive difference.
ISSUES - THE KEY TO WINNING HEARTS
To get to where we want to be, let us work backwards and start on the
assumption that one of our goals is to be in a position of authority
through politics so that we can write, design and shape the destiny of
this country. In a democracy, the power to grant this authority rests
with the people. So we need to win their hearts, confidence, support
and active participation first.
The fastest way to have people on our side is to deliver results
quickly and have them believe in our sincerity, integrity, commitment,
and winnability. In other words, we must find issues and projects that
we can successfully work on - something the people can base their
trust on.
We need to take up one or two issues/projects at the national level
· which affect a large section of the population
· where the potential to reverse injustice is huge
· where success could come rather early which everyone can see
· which carry within them the potential to fundamentally alter the
system
· in which masses can participate, and
· which has a multiplier effect on both the results and our
membership base
We should also take up projects at local levels along similar lines but
keeping in mind the resources available, and without sacrificing
performance or the quality of the deliverables. Most of the projects
- if not all - should be financially self sustainable, scalable,
socially and morally kosher, capital light, and tightly managed.
Once we have the results coming in, and people benefiting directly, the
multiplier effect will automatically kick in. Citizen after citizen,
volunteer after volunteer, success after success - one will follow
the other and the other will follow the first. The momentum may be so
forceful it may spin out of control. That is when, a good leader, a
great team, a well coordinated strategy, and deft handling of the media
will make all the difference - to our advantage.
The Right to Information Act, 2005 and Reservations are the two
proposed national issues - both knowledge based - that we can take
up immediately. These are within our grasps both financially and
intellectually, though the latter may not see success in a hurry.
Organizing hawkers & roadside vendors as social entrepreneurs is
another project we may consider.
Further, a platter of issues as follows is suggested for metros and
large cities to choose from:
1. Transport
2. Traffic
3. Water
4. Power
5. Roads
6. Sanitation
7. Encroachment
8. Bazaars and markets
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE
Please click on www.nyayabhoomi.org/bharatmission.pdf to download a
file to see an Organization Chart.
Briefly, it is proposed as follows:
1. Chapter Heads are directly elected by chapter members for one
year.
2. There should be a President elected for 2 years by all the Chapter
Heads.
3. There are 5-6 Committees and members are elected for two years by
Chapter Heads a year after the President is elected.
4. The President shall choose his own team of Vice Presidents except
one.
5. VP - Vigilance is elected by all members of all Committees.
Proposed Committees are:
1. Chapter Heads (all)
2. Audit
3. Budgeting
4. Performance
5. Ideology & Strategy
Proposed VPs are:
1. VP Vigilance
2. VP Finance - Funds, Budget, Accounts
3. VP Admin/PIO - PIO, Events, Infrastructure, HR, DTP, Translators
4. VP CIO - M.I.S., Software, Web development
5. VP External - NGOs, Professionals, Students, Panchayats, RWAs,
Trade bodies
6. VP Spokesman - Media, Presentations, Website, Newsletters
7. VP Issues Infrastructural - Project Managers
8. VP Issues RTI & Justice - Project Managers
Collective or Rotating Leadership sounds appealing, but will it work?
We need an efficient, effective and a forward thinking leader who can
be given enough freedom, power, and the time to build his own team,
chalk out plans and implement them with panache. Of course, there would
be checks and balances, and the provision for recall in exceptional
cases.
CONSTITUTION
Is there room or the need for a full scale constitution yet when we are
nobodies? Perhaps a two page constitution will suffice for now, and we
can build it up as we go along. Once BM is a sufficiently mature
organization, we can prepare a proper constitution running into not
more than 8 to 10 pages plus annexures.
FUNDS - THE LEAST OF OUR WORRIES
NRIs - Businessmen - Individuals - Trusts & Foundations -
Members - Beneficiaries
1. Once our projects start to show up some success and the potential in
them is revealed to the world, we can have as many rupees flowing in as
we will need. There are people and organizations looking for the right
projects to fund. They won't be interested in a small school for
physically handicapped, or a shelter home in Delhi, or a few blood
donation camps. They are not interested because half of the
handicapped, all of the homeless and the entire lack of supply of blood
are the consequences of the failure of the system. If we can show them
we want to and we can fix the system, their ears will perk up and their
eyes will shine. And they will throw lakhs and crores of rupees our
way.
2. A modest membership fee of Rs.100 per person per year is proposed.
3. A modest 1% contribution of one's earnings from the members who
are holding an office in BM is proposed.
4. We should explore social entrepreneurship by engaging hawkers and
roadside vendors. Their businesses could become an important source of
recurring revenues for us.
All money should come to the Central Office first. Inflow into the
Central Office and outflow towards various expenses are two separate
channels. The logistics of money management shall be decided by the CFO
and CIO.
WEBSITE
1. The website should be fully functional, software and database
driven, and constantly updated as if our life and the existence of BM
depended on it.
2. The forums and groups should be internally hosted instead of using
Yahoo Groups.
3. Names, designations and responsibilities within the BM, photos and
CVs of everyone other than a primary member should be online too.
4. Members data will be part of the software application that we shall
specially commission.
5. The application shall enable project management, tracking,
monitoring, and supervision.
6. Every task can be assigned, reassigned, tracked, cancelled,
completed, reported, etc.
7. By now, you should have got the idea. Let's work on it.
COMMUNICATION / PROPAGATION
Disproportionately high efforts/resources appear to be going into
communication/propagation. Do we need this at all in the forms that it
is being put forward by so many of our members? Attention span of the
people is very short. Communication of just ideas without any work and
results to show for them soon tends to fizzle out. In any case, given
the many disappointments attributable to the political class, promises
do not hold any, well, promises for the people. They want to see
concrete things taking shape on the ground which they can see and
benefit from.
Internally too, unless we have programmes under way and the methods to
constantly update everyone on the progress, we cannot maintain even
members' interest and keep them productively involved.
In the light of the above, some methods of communication as follows are
proposed:
INTERNAL
1. A weekly BM-wide online newsletter. Offline version may come out
later.
2. Regular chapter-focussed online and offline newsletters where
feasible and useful.
3. An internal web based system of messaging one another with
reporting features.
4. Online forums.
EXTERNAL
1. Prepare an introduction in the form of a brochure for wide
distribution amongst targeted groups and individuals.
2. Prepare presentations and take them to RWAs, NGOs, trade
associations, professional bodies of doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc.,
and other groups.
3. Senior members should approach opinion makers who hold views
similar to ours.
4. Find a point man in every college of India who will print a PDF
copy of the newsletter and post it on the notice board. We will soon
use RTI application to ask the government to supply us a list of all
colleges and educational institutions in India.
5. Use campuses and college festivals.
SMS
We must have an agreement with as many SMS service operators as
possible (Indiatimes, Rediff, NDTV, etc.) in order to enable receipt of
messages from across the country from users who will just type "BM
message" and send to a short number such as 8888 or 6388.
CALL CENTRE
We should explore the feasibility of outsourcing a technology-enabled
24 hours call centre to receive calls about membership requests,
donations, our work, etc.
RAKESH AGARWAL
CELL: 09873 222 222
rak...@nyayabhoomi.org