On the Contrary by IDR

The climate change story has largely been all doom-and-gloom. As we wake up to the impacts of worsening climate change, it still feels a bit abstract. How does the crisis relate to people’s day to day lives? Is there a role for individuals to play? This week, Navroz Dubash, policy advisor and professor at the Centre for Policy Research, and Sahana Ghosh, science journalist at Mongabay India, look at the complicated manner in which we talk about climate today, and explore whether there is a better, more empowering story to tell.

Host: Rachita Vora 

Produced and edited by: Rachita Vora, Shreya Adhikari, and Smarinita Shetty. 

IDR is an online journal that publishes cutting-edge ideas, lessons and insights, written by, and for the people working on some of India’s toughest problems. For more information, visit www.idronline.org, or follow IDR on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram.

This podcast is a Maed in India production. 

Donate: https://idronline.org/donate/

India Development Review’s podcast, On the Contrary by IDR returns with Season 4, and this time it's focussing on the most serious crisis of our times—climate change. In every episode, two climate experts discuss the interplay between the climate emergency and gender, livelihoods, technology, and more. Tune in every Wednesday, on your favourite podcasting app. For more information, visit: www.idronline.org

Donate: https://idronline.org/donate/

Can investing in government schools result in an improved education system? Or does the answer lie in developing affordable private schools? In this episode, Aditya Natraj, CEO of Piramal Foundation, and Parth Shah, founder-president of the Centre for Civil Society, discuss the pros and cons of government and private schools, and why both systems need to work together to ensure quality education for children. 

• The pandemic has thrown up many challenges for both government and private schools. The entire education system needs to be reassessed to ensure children don’t suffer any further learning losses. 

• A monopoly of either system takes away parents’ right to choose the kind of education they want for their children. It is important for affordable private schools to co-exist with government schools.

• There is a huge gap between the perception and reality of both schooling systems. The perception of either system’s performance vis-a-vis national surveys and popular media does not usually paint the whole picture.

For more information about IDR, go to www.idronline.com. Also, follow IDR on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram. 

Read more:

1.  The purpose of education: Learn, do, become.

2.  Are private schools really better than government schools?

3.  “Let us not give up on government schools”

4.  Can we ensure all children return to schools?

5.  How reliable is India’s learning outcomes data?

6.  State of the sector report on private schools in India

7.  Without accountability, there’s no pressure to improve

8.  What standardised testing doesn’t tell us about learning

9.  What the National Education Policy means for India

10.  Why Indian children can’t read

11.  Education in India needs an overhaul

12.  Teacher shortage: A problem of distribution or scarcity?

13.  The billion dollar opportunity in affordable private schools

14.  Charting the rise of budget private schools

Donate: https://idronline.org/donate/

In this episode KK Shailaja, former health minister of Kerala, and Liby Johnson, executive director of Gram Vikas, discuss why disaster preparedness is about more than just building back better. What is needed is a model of development that is inclusive and prioritises the well-being of all citizens.

• Socio-economic factors play a huge role in how a particular state or region is affected by a disaster. The marginalised population of a state is worst-hit during a disaster.  

• Disaster management is an ongoing development issue that requires long-term disaster preparedness, where planning and building resilience precedes the calamity.

• The urban local bodies and panchayats must be decentralised and given more power as they can play a decisive role in resilience and trust-building among communities.

• There should be less parenting and more partnerships between the citizens and the state to have a more involved citizenry. Nonprofits can play a significant role in bridging the gap between local governance and the people.

For more information about IDR, go to www.idronline.com. Also, follow IDR on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram. 

Read more:

1. Rethinking our approaches to disaster relief

2. Climate change, disaster, and what philanthropy can do

3. NREGA: A pathway to climate resilience

4. IPCC Report 2022: How climate change impacts the most vulnerable countries

5. Unpaid claims for natural disasters at over INR 1,705 crore, says IRDA report

6. Buffeted by cyclones and floods, Mumbai enacts its very own climate action plan

7. Lessons to be learned from 'Kerala flood response' and building disaster resilience

8. Following the Odisha example for developing community based disaster management in India

9. Odisha’s affordable and disaster resilient houses

10. India needs state-specific disaster readiness plan

Donate: https://idronline.org/donate/

Would philanthropy be more impactful if donors took a trust-based approach? In this episode Reshma Anand, CEO of Hindustan Unilever Foundation, and Anand Sinha, India country adviser at Packard Foundation, discuss the role of trust in philanthropy and why power needs to be shared in order to create a more just and equitable society. 

Highlights:

• Power dynamics in philanthropy are deeply entrenched. Changing this to share power with others requires donors to significantly change how they do business and think about accountability. 
• If philanthropy wants to bring about sustainable, long-term social change then it needs to focus on enablers and capabilities and not just on activities. 

• A strategic approach to giving is compatible with a trust-based approach.

• Trust works both ways—grantees and donors must build and earn each other’s trust so they can communicate more effectively.

For more information about IDR, go to www.idronline.com. Also, follow IDR on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram.

Read more:

1. Why can’t more philanthropists think like MacKenzie Scott?

2. Where Indian philanthropy has gone wrong

3. Reflections: Philanthropy in India during COVID-19

4. The Trust Based Philanthropy Project

5. It’s time for funders to pay-what-it-takes

6. How funders in India can better manage the risks of big philanthropy

7. Love, not log frames

8. “Philanthropy is not only for the wealthy”

9. Is philanthropy really changing anything?

10.  Making philanthropy more business-like is a big mistake

Donate: https://idronline.org/donate/

How can anti-caste allyship move beyond lip service and cede power? In this episode, Christina Dhanaraj and Dhanya Rajendran discuss what it really means to be an anti-caste ally, the role institutions must play, and why caste-marginalised people should take centre stage in the anti-caste movement.

Highlights

• While affirmative action has played a role in bringing caste-marginalised people into formal institutions, higher positions continue to be occupied by those belonging to the dominant castes. 

• We still have caste-powered people at the centre, thinking of how they can be better allies. Instead, caste-oppressed people need to be at the fore, holding the power and being the ones originating anti-caste discourses. 

• Social media has been a powerful platform for anti-caste voices and conversations. However, the call outs that have been happening seem to be taking up more real estate than the issues we should be talking about. 

• It is important to educate and speak to younger generations about caste exclusion and oppression, and make them aware of their privileges early on. 

For more information about IDR, go to www.idronline.com. Also, follow IDR on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram.

Read more:

1. The politics of mental health and well-being.

2. Who tells our stories: Representation of marginalised caste groups in Indian newsrooms

3.  IDR Interviews | Bezwada Wilson

4. “I want to build a better life for those around me”

5. A story of caste, class, and activism

6. Photo essay: Justice delayed is justice denied

7. Caste, friendship and solidarity

8. How caste oppression is institutionalised in India’s sanitation jobs

9.  Readings for an anti-caste education

10.  We tell our stories ourselves: Young Bahujan artists on Instagram

This podcast is a Maed in India production, you can find out more about us https://www.maedinindia.in/

Donate: https://idronline.org/donate/

Have gender attitudes really changed in our country? In this episode, writer and professor Nivedita Menon speaks with Sujata Khandekar, founding director of CORO, about gender identities and norms, the need to challenge them, and how we can change traditional attitudes towards gender.

Highlights

• While there have been certain visible shifts in gender attitudes, these have not been uniform for all women and across all domains. 
• There is considerable backlash when people do not conform to traditional gender identities, especially for those who may identify as non-binary, transgender, etc. This is often the price that people pay for threatening the existing social order. 

• Dialogue is an important tool to initiate change, not just with people outside the home who may have differing opinions, but also within our immediate circles—family, friends, and those we consider allies.

• The institution of traditional heterosexual marriage and the normative concept of a family further reinforce strict identities of a man and a woman. 

For more information about IDR, go to www.idronline.com. Also, follow IDR on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram.

Read more

1. 7 years after SC judgment, third genders say they feel like second class citizens

2. Gender inequality: What really needs to change

3. What does NFHS-5 data tell us about women empowerment in India?

4. “We want the same rights as cisgender women”

5. India’s health systems exclude LGBTQ+ people. This needs to change.

6. “There’s a story behind each of those self-inflicted wounds”

7. We need to change how we report crimes against women

8. It’s time to compensate women’s unpaid labour

9. Learning from the grassroots

This podcast is a Maed in India production, you can find out more about us https://www.maedinindia.in/

Donate: https://idronline.org/donate/

Is mental health and well-being an individual or an organisational responsibility? In this episode, Raj Mariwala, director at Mariwala Health Initiative, and Santrupt Misra, director of Group HR at Aditya Birla Group, discuss the importance of talking about mental health at work and how organisations can be more inclusive.

Highlights

•  Mental illness is often treated just like physical health, that is, a set of symptoms that needs to be cured. But the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that mental health is deeply connected to our lives, the environments we inhabit, and our contexts. 

•  A well-run organisation realises that there is no dichotomy between revenue generation and employee well-being. They understand that organisations are productive precisely because of their employees.

•  Workplaces need to make reasonable accommodations for mental health, and this can include extra days of leave and decreasing daily working hours, among other measures. 

•  If senior leadership can display authenticity and vulnerability, it makes people around them feel more comfortable to share.

• Workplaces mirror the larger prejudices of society. Therefore, mental health policies in an organisation need to include other anti-discrimination policies and safeguards.

  Organisations need to look at different ways to measure productivity.

For more information about IDR, visit www.idronline.com. Also, follow IDR on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram.

Read more

1. COVID-19 and unresolved grief: How workplaces can respond

2. Productivity at the cost of well-being

3. Supporting well-being in resource-scarce environments

4. Mental health in India: Underserved and underfunded

5. Employee mental health: A guide for the social sector

6. It’s a New Era for Mental Health at Work

7. Who is ‘self-improvement’ for?

8. The problem with resilience as we know it

9. The politics of mental health and well-being

10.  Are our cities making us lonely?

11.  Community mental health: Not a silver bullet

12.  Why we need to take a systemic approach to suicide prevention

This podcast is a Maed in India production, you can find out more about us https://www.maedinindia.in/

Donate: https://idronline.org/donate/

Dr Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), and Dr Sangita Reddy, joint managing director of Apollo Hospitals, talk about India’s public health system—what the largest gaps are, where the greatest needs are, and what the role of private players and the public sector needs to be.

Highlights

• We need to identify the largest gaps in India’s healthcare system and prioritise the aspects that need to be strengthened over the next few years. 
• Mere infrastructure strengthening will not be enough—we need a multi-layered and multiskilled healthcare workforce as well.
• Technology can help reimagine healthcare by creating a system of disease surveillance and prevention through detailed personal health records. 
• For a robust health system we must acknowledge both—the needs of individuals and the social, economic, and environmental contexts that impact their choices and access to healthcare.

Read more

1. The healthcare skew
2. What the numbers say about the performance of Ayushman Bharat
3. A pathway to universal healthcare in India
4. India’s push for universal healthcare depends on women’s safety
5. The trouble with developing a framework for primary healthcare delivery
6. Healthcare: 5 Non-COVID Areas To Focus On In 2021
7. Can private healthcare provide more value to consumers?
8. Young adults in India want better healthcare
9. 8 Ways in Which India's Public Healthcare Can Change for the Better
10. India: Health of the Nation’s States. The India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative
11. A replicable model for urban healthcare
12. COVID-19: A unique opportunity to reform our health systems
13. What is keeping the doctors away?
14. Are India’s healthcare goals inclusive of tribal peoples?
15. IDR Interviews | Dr Rani Bang
16. Reimagining the role of ASHA workers
17. A day in the life of: A community health worker
18. The ecology of an itch

This podcast is a Maed in India production, you can find out more about us https://www.maedinindia.in/

Donate: https://idronline.org/donate/

In this episode, Hari Menon, who heads the India office of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Vineet Rai, founder and chairperson of Aavishkaar Group, discuss all things social impact—what it means, how the investing world calculates it, and why we need to expand our definition of what ‘counts’ as impact.

Highlights 

• What social impact means, how we should measure it, and what needs to change in how we approach it.
• Who gets to decide what counts as impact—funders, social impact organisations, or the people they are meant to serve?
• What are the trade-offs between impact, sustainability, and scalability? 
• When it comes to social impact, can investors realistically move away from quantitative metrics in favour of more qualitative ones?

Read more

1. IDR Explains | Impact investing
2. Scaling out, scaling up, scaling deep: Advancing systemic social innovation and the learning processes to support it
3. Is size the right metric to measure impact?
4. Rethinking participatory development in the context of scale
5. The social innovation paradox: Why it’s hard to be both innovative and scalable
6. Are social change and scale mutually exclusive?
7. Lessons in scaling with the government
8. Questioning scale as we know it
9. ‘Who determines what impact matters most?’
10. Building purpose beyond CSR
11. Funders, it’s time we change our relationship with data

For more information about IDR, go to www.idronline.com. Also, follow IDR on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram.

This podcast is a Maed in India production, you can find out more about us https://www.maedinindia.in/

Donate: https://idronline.org/donate/