Anil Swarup-
(Anil Swarup is a former Education Secretary and Coal Secretary in the Government of India. He is also a renowned author. The views expressed in this article are his own)
Akshay Patra was one of the proud winners of Nexus of Good Awards 2023. This organization had actually inspired me to think about Nexus of Good way back in 2016 when I was Secretary, School Education and Literacy, Government of India.
It was just past noon when the plane landed at Lucknow. It was an official visit to the state of Uttar Pradesh. I was scheduled to proceed to the state Guest House as all the official business was after lunch. However, I chose to take an unscheduled detour (I had come to understand that such visits gave me a feel of the ground reality) to visit a government primary school. When I reached the school, it was lunch break and the mid-day meal was being served. When I introduced myself to the teacher, she looked at me incredulously. She couldn’t believe that the Secretary had come to the school, unannounced. She soon regained her composure and offered me the mid-day meal that was being served. Despite a short stint so far in the sector, I had heard horrid stories about the quality of such meals. Hence, I wanted to get a taste of it myself. When I did taste the food, I could not believe that such delicious food could be served as part of the mid-day meal. I jokingly told my wife, who was accompanying me, that even she didn’t cook as delicious a meal. I inquired from the teacher about the source of this food. She said that it was being provided by Akshay Patra. My ignorance about the organization was writ large on my face. The teacher was perceptive. She immediately gauged it and gave me a brief explanation about the organization that served this food.
When I reached the state headquarters, I ascertained more details about Akshay Patra that was partnering with the state in two Districts to serve food in schools. Grains and some amount as was admissible under the mid-day meal scheme of the Government of India were provided by the government. Akshay Patra added some more ingredients and provided cooked food from central kitchens set up by them. I invited the state head of Akshay Patra for a discussion later in the afternoon. After complimenting him and the organization for the wonderful contribution they were making, I asked him why this good work was being limited to only two of the eighty Districts of the state. He thanked me for the compliment but stated that the decision to extend the facility to other Districts would be taken by the head office that was at Bangalore.
Impressed with what I had seen and to explore the possibility of how this ‘good’ could be scaled, I flew to Bangalore within the next week. The visit to The ISKCON temple at Bangalore that was also the headquarters of Akshay Patra was a rewarding one. I got a better understanding of the organization and its activities. I also discussed how the activities could be scaled, and how a ‘nexus’ could be built up between the state’s government and Akshay Patra to scale their expertise in providing quality food to children by way of the mid-day meal. Akshay Patra at that point in time was serving meals to around a million school children every day. (This number has now crossed two million.) Thereafter, I ceased to be just the Secretary of the Government of India and became the principal facilitator to bring about the scaling of such good practices. It was from experiences like the one with Akshay Patra that the ‘Nexus of Good’ movement was well and truly born!
To begin with, there was just a Twitter handle @nexusofgood. However, it subsequently evolved as a movement to bring together people to identify, understand, appreciate, replicate and scale good work done in society as a whole. The idea was to evolve an alternative narrative to the negativity that was becoming all-pervasive in social media and other media of communication. Such negativity was impacting the thoughts and actions of many people, especially young minds.
There is no doubt that much good work is happening around us, but, unfortunately, it gets lost on account of this all-pervasive negativity. The ‘premium’ on good work seems lost in the high decibel din used to promote negativity. I am reminded of the poet’s words: The best lack conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity.
The ‘good’ are struggling for recognition. Many of them are fighting their battles against a much more organized set of ‘negativity mongers’ alone. The questions were: Can the good work in tandem? Should the good work in tandem? Is it possible to convey the benefits of positive thinking and good work?
The idea is not to discuss ideas, and the objective is to ideate from a practice that has worked on the ground. The aim is not merely to appreciate this good work, which indeed is the commendable initial step; it is to explore the potential of replicating and scaling this practice. It is also essential to foster public-private partnership because the understanding is that quality usually comes from the private domain and scale from the public.
The Nexus of Good portal (www.nexusofgood.com) houses a large number of stories pertaining to civil servants who are are doing phenomenal work that went unnoticed. Thus we have the likes of this young IAS officer, Ashish Singh who initiated cleanliness drive that has sustained and made Indore the cleanest city of the country. Manu Srivastava, also an IAS officer who came up with an affordable model of use of solar energy. Iqbal Singh Chahal, Municipal Commissioner, Mumbai demonstrated how an unprecedented pandemic like COVID could be managed. Rumana Jafri, a young Block Development Officer developed tourism in a remote place, Mukhipata in Odisha. A new entrant to Indian Forest Service, Vikash Ujjwal did the same in Lohardaga District of Jharkhand. He not only prevented illicit felling of trees but converted the Namdog forest into a tourist place providing employment to the denizens of the area. What Aswani Lohani, a Railway Engineer did in the revival of tourism in Madhya Pradesh is legendary. Another Forest Officer, Aishwarya Raj converted a waste dumping ground into an eco-friendly park, ‘Sangam Swarnim Vatika’ in Kulu, Himacahal Pradesh. Water bodies were rejuvenated by a young Collector, Dr T Arun in Puducherry. How Tukaram Mundhe put through a water scarcity management plan in Solapur is exemplary and is being replicated elsewhere in the country. These are just a few examples of the wonderful work being done by civil servants.
There are many civil society organizations that are making a difference. Lend A Hand is leading the effort to vocationalize school education in partnership with state governments. Humana People to People India is scaling the effort to get the out-of-school children back into schools. NGOs like Muktangan, Peepul and Aakansha have demonstrated that Municipal Schools can be run efficiently. Arpan is successfully handling a sensitive issue of child sexual abuse. Idream Career and Shyamchee Aiyee Foundation are excelling in career guidance through use of technology. Akshara Foundation’s Ganitha Kalika Aandolan has been an unqualified success and has not only been implemented in Karnataka but has also been adopted by other states. All this good work is being replicated and scaled through a public-private partnership.
There are also many faceless individuals around. There are putting their heart and soul into making things happen in collaboration with state governments and their agencies. We need to locate them, understand and appreciate what they have done and how they have done it and then attempt to replicate and scale these practices. That is what Nexus of Good is all about. The movement has already got going with hundreds of positive stories on the portal www.nexusofgood.com , most of them set to be replicated and scaled. There are thousands of people that are following the movement. Many of the city chapters of Nexus of Good have got going to roadshow the good work happening in their areas. The Nexus of Good movement is gathering pace. As the Nexus of Good Foundation announces its third Annual Awards, it is time to celebrate good work.
