Why India Needs More Grassroots Organizations at the Local Level

India has managed to become a force to reckon with at the global level despite having numerous socio-political problems, many of which are, more often than not, the unfortunate offshoot of the deep-seated colonial legacy, the remnants of which are still quite visible there. During my time there I noticed that Indians seem to be constantly battling starkly contradictory impulses. On the one hand they desire a high standard of life keeping pace with the modern, developed outside world but, on the other hand, their traditional values and structures have become so cumbersome and distorted, that they seem to have a hard time balancing adherence to cultural norms and discarding redundant practices which harm the society and the country as a whole.

I realize that the confusion and the cacophony is a very important and integral part of the country. Working with ShivaMaya I had the chance to interact with people from various walks of life. ShivaMaya collaborated with many amazing grassroots organizations. One common theme that I noticed during my interactions with the members of such organizations is that they constantly feel restricted due to the bureaucratic red-tape and corruption that is so rampant at all levels of government in India. These organizations have very unique agendas, dealing with myriad problems, some of which are so complex, that even I had a hard time grasping the issues and the possible solutions which had to be applied.

One dominant theme that seemed to emerge from ShivaMaya’s experiences is the suspicion and reluctance among people to accept change. The political class in many of the slum areas where we worked seemed to control these people and their lives so completely that our efforts were often thwarted or deferred, though, I must laud the perseverance of team ShivaMaya as they always made sure that their efforts yielded results.

Government projects aimed at uplifting the conditions of the marginalized population are aplenty and operate at a very large scale. However, the absence of proper implementation, unavailability of data, corruption, power politics, and local level provocations make the ultimate success of such programs difficult. So, my observation is that the government should definitely encourage the establishment of more such grassroots organizations which can then partner up with the authorities to make implementation of such projects much easier and less complicated.