An Indian social entrepreneur, Anshu Gupta was awarded Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2015 for his work on transforming the culture of giving in India and for highlighting material as a sustainable development resource for the poor. Popularly known as the Clothing Man, he is the founder of an India-based nonprofit – Goonj. Gupta brings to the table an instinctive empathy and connect with people, moving the focus from the conventional-giver’s pride to the unconventional-receiver’s dignity and in reminding the world that true giving always respects and preserves human dignity. Excerpts from an interview:
You have been always engaged in relief work. How is COVID-19 pandemic different from other emergency situations? And how is it shaping your response towards COVID-19 pandemic?
Covid-19 is a completely different disaster. We don’t know when the recovery will happen. There are a lot of things, which are unpredictable, because this is one disaster which is still unfolding. The flood occurs for a few days, cyclone hits us for a few hours and earthquake takes place for a few seconds and after that recovery phase starts. When we talk about this disaster, even today it is still unfolding. So that’s how it is completely different. We have never bought so much of dry ration and vegetables for the needy. It is almost 3 million KG of food, which we have sourced. So, from this we can understand how different this situation is.
How did you manage to undertake relief work in the flooded areas presently?
We have been handling flood, cyclone and earthquake related emergencies for many years. The floods in Assam, Bihar and Odisha take place every year and similar kind of devastation takes place. Every year these areas are flooded. This year obviously it is much more for the Goonj team, existing network and the channels, which we have created. We were already there in the field and we scaled up operations. And what people need to understand about the model of Goonj is what we have done in last two decades of our work is something the way telecom sector has done: They laid the optical fibre and then they are using it for multiple purposes.
Since we may have to live with the virus for a long time. How should the NGO sector prepare for the future?
People must understand and recognise that the voluntary sector or the social development sector is playing very deep rooted large scale role, but unfortunately lots of people still think that this sector is run by people who do not have any other job and that is why they go to NGOs. The most inefficient corporate institutions have a lot of doubt about the efficiency of the NGO sector. But if you study our response to Covid-19, you will appreciate that if many people are still alive it is largely due to the NGO sector and common citizens.
How can we use the COVID 19 challenge as an opportunity to pursue more holistic development model?
I think I had a lot of hope when I saw a small chunk of people who were out there and trying to do their best to help people walking on the road in very miserable way and dying on the roads. I thought maybe the Covid-19 will affect our ego and arrogance and it will tell us that how badly we treated our fellow citizens who didn’t trust us for even a minute and started walking through unknown ways in absolute miserable condition, but to be honest I don’t see that much of change in the society.
I don’t see people like us saying that I like to challenge my arrogance. So, all this talk of holistic or inclusive development can never fructify when you still put society in two parts and you think that you are the only skilled one and the person who is not wearing good clothes is unskilled one and you are the doer that person is a taker. That is absolute rubbish and that is how a large number of government and CSR sector has really operated.
We still don’t understand that we as a society miserably failed. The most sophisticated health systems of various countries have really failed, but what worked was a small PHC or road side doctor somewhere or the government hospitals, which have been completely ignored. The top most leadership of various institutions says that we miserably failed, but it is not that we didn’t make efforts. We just need to re-look into certain things and come back and try to really solve it.
Otherwise let us not talk about all this holistic and inclusive development, which is something we have been talking for decades. The way Covid-19 has shattered a large part of the society is a proof that we didn’t do enough because we never included people with whom or for whom we want to work. We always treated them as beneficiaries and ourselves as donors. Donors of knowledge, donors of wisdom, and donors of money. We always created a platform for ourselves from where we can look down upon others.
– Transcript by Mohammad Mujtaba
(An intern from Jamia Millia Islamia)