Ideology vs Practicality

Randomized controlled trial for social policy and the need for evidence-based policies and interventions. Brilliant case studies and talk by Esther Duflo.

Some other great videos from Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of Acumen Fund and author of 'The Blue Sweater'.

On escaping poverty

A third way to think about aid

Step One

I watch as Imran raises his hand impatiently, then waves it around in frantic desperation, worry etched across his face. He wants another samosa, even before the one in his hand is finished. He's concerned that they will all be over, and that there won't be enough for him. In that moment, it doesn't matter to him that fifteen other children are waiting to eat beside him, it doesn't matter that he's been reassured twice that there is more than enough food for everyone, and it doesn't matter that he's being selfish, impolite and greedy. It doesn't matter, because Imran comes from a family of six who live under a fly-over in South Delhi and more often than not, he doesn't get two full meals a day. He doesn't know polite. He knows that things are always limited, and that it takes a fight to secure even those basic things that his body craves by its very nature.

I watch as Khushi walks away from me shyly, secretly pleased that I've given her a star for her drawing and written her name on it for her. There's a sense of pride in her young eyes and something tells me it's a rare and confusing emotion for her. She goes back to sit with the other girls, tentatively lifting little scraps of paper and pasting them on her drawing. She is concentrating hard, making sure it is perfect. She might not be able to govern where she lives or the fact that she has to beg on streets to earn a living (hell, she doesn't even understand what that means at her age), but she does determine what happens on that piece of paper in her hand. Unlike her father's drinking habit and her mother's rage fits, this she has control over. And for once in her life, she feels like a child her age should - relaxed, excited and content.

I watch as Seher, only eight years old herself, consoles her wailing one year old brother. She has brought him to class because wherever she goes, he goes. Her mother works 14 hours a day to support all three of them; her father died in an accident in the village 8 months ago. Seven days a week, Seher roams the roads with her brother at her hip, knocking on car window after car window for as much as one rupee. She used to leave him with an aunt earlier, but that was before she realised that carrying him with her almost always resulted in higher earnings. It was then that she stopped thinking of him as a burden and began thinking of him as an asset. I wish I could explain to her that he's neither. He's just a child, and so is she.

I watch as Suraj glares at Roohi. Then, without flinching he grabs her hands and whacks her across her neck. She lets out a cry and before I can register what's happening she returns his cold stare and kicks him hard in the stomach. He is nine years old and she is seven. I shudder at their hostility, at the revenge and intolerance that burns in their eyes. This isn't a one-off incident. This is what they know. Violence, impatience and lack of control. They've seen their parents, their siblings and their friends do the same thing. It isn't unnatural for them. But it should be.

Poverty leads to a variety of impairments that cripple human beings and societies alike. Children being robbed of their childhood is one of many heartbreaking consequences of poverty. Their potential is crushed before it can surface, their skins thicken to bear responsibilities too big for their tiny shoulders, and they're socialised into a tough and unjust world with no turning back. When I was placed in each of the above-described situations, I didn't ask myself how these children can learn, but how they can first unlearn and then relearn. Children living on the street grow up much before their time. Educating them is therefore a much more challenging task. It becomes doubly hard in a country where access to quality education is limited, to say the least. It has baffled and confounded me, preoccupying my thoughts for months. It's an unstructured, mobile and diverse group which makes it harder to draw out a common chart for development. Harder, but not impossible. 

The stories above have been inspired by my observations at Khoj Foundation, an NGO that runs an education programme for street children in South Delhi (I volunteer there once a week). The names and background information are fictitious, but the situations and the thoughts they prompted are real. Working at Khoj has got me a step closer to achieving my dream of providing quality holistic education to underprivileged children across India.