Some Notes About Chaitanya's Plans

Mr. Anand Rao & Mr. Ramesh Paineedi, the founders of Chaitanya, discussed with me present activities, plans for Chaitanya, and the state of NGOs working at village level in India.

Chaitanya’s plan is to have a presence and networks in all the villages of 3 districts around Chitradurga (Chitradurga is one of the three districts). The aim is to improve village infrastructure rather than simply provide charity donations or loans. The infrastructure work will give Chaitanya a platform to fund and run education programs and other social development projects. For instance, Asha for Education cannot finance tuition centres in each of the villages being focused on by Chaitanya now. The main method for achieving this development is through micro-finance, involving selecting appropriate businesses and owners to provide the financial support needed to improve investments and rural services. Micro-finance will often also come with management assistance, and direct involvement with the entities and partner businesses involved. For instance, the milk delivery chain is a present focus, with various businesses being linked by Chaitanya, and the necessary infrastructure being funded and built up for sustainable growth. Chaitanya is working with S3IDF (Small-scale sustainable infrastructure development fund) on these projects in an organic growth model. Another part of the activities of Chaitanya also involved retailing of useful products like pressure cookers, non-stick pans and compact fluorescent bulbs at lower than retail cost to rural customers. Such products promote time, cost & energy saving for busier, productive rural individuals.

Chaitanya is at a stage where it needs to be run as a professional organization with a professional structure, This includes a board of eminent & experienced directors at the executive level, and training in professionalism & conduct at the ground level. Chaitanya is also presently at a stage where they are trying to raise money and narrow down their core focus and competencies. Previously, it was an organisation run by a full-time teacher (Ramesh) and an Anand Rao, who was involved mainly with S3IDF.

Most NGOs (above 90% it is estimated) operating at the village level are extremely inefficient and operating for the purpose of providing the operators with some sort of income. There is a very relaxed attitude and culture in India in general, but this has also been brought about by the socialist economic influence on the policies of early Indian government. The government’s role was seen to run large companies to provide services, rather than place them in private hands. The railways, telecommunications and the like are some examples. Significant public expenditure went into these areas and less and less was available for social services like education and health. As a result that has been a deficiency in the quality of these services. These businesses have been operating with very poor efficiency and customer services, with large amounts of money lost to corruption in the process of business operations. The superiority of the market system and private business has been demonstrated very potently in the telecommunications sector, with Airtel (private) outperforming the 40 year earnings of BSNL (the national provider) in less than 5 years of operation. Substantial customer satisfaction is also found among Airtel customers when compared with their government-operated counterparts.

The central government allocates funds to education, health and other services, knowing full-well that 90% is lost to bureaucratic corruption along the way, with only 10% reaching actual projects. Because the government could not get social services to people, they allocated greater funding and support to NGOs, but the NGOs turned out to be even less accountable. Chaitanya is one NGO that delivers such services (e.g. infrastructure development) via existing and built-up enterprises in Nayakanahatti and surrounds. Chaitanya is managing 30 different projects in partnership with S3IDF addressing various aspects of rural industry and infrastructure. The total starting value of these projects amounts to approximately 30lakh. A lot of this money is coming from local banks in addition to the S3IDF fund, and all the projects are paying back.

Chaitanya and S3IDF feel that just providing funds to existing businesses (i.e. micro-finance) can only result in fairly limited change require for infrastructure development. However, connecting people to the larger market is where big gains are possible. The partnership also gets involved with the businesses, providing ideas & execution. They bring people together to find businesses that will work together to produce a thriving, self-sustaining industry.

There are people in cities with experience & expertise in building organizations, but village people do not. However, city dwellers fail to understand the capacity limitations, needs, resources, and culture of the villagers, limiting their ability to actually execute project ideas successfully. This is where a local coordinator with strategic thinking ability and local connections & knowledge becomes so critical, and this is the role that Mr. Ramesh Paineedi plays in Nayakanahatti. His work ethic & long-term view also ensures long-term success.

Chaitanya only started May 2004, so numerous staff members do not yet have the capacity to run the organisation. Most employees only have 1-3 years of experience in the organisation. Employees are also given training with the knowledge that their skills will be of use to Chaitanya and the villages where they work and live. In the 30 projects running and operated by Chaitanya and S3IDF, employees have only learnt a few. In one instance where 5 or 6 projects were rolled out, employees had only learnt one, and were struggling to pick up the others in tandem. More skills will be of immense use to Chaitanya, so Chaitanya has provided a few days of basic training to 100 local unemployed people. They will test them on their skills and aptitudes to see who is most suitable for the Chaitanya team in assisting the organisation to grow. The ten best participants will be recruited into Chaitanya and the next ten best persons will be recommended to other NGOs and local businesses to prevent doubling up of time and efforts in recruiting suitable people.