Mumbai II _ Dhobi Ghat

Dhobi Ghat is supposedly the world’s largest open air laundry, casually located in city-center of Mumbai, nearby the cacophonous Mahalaxmi station.

By the time Janey and I neared one of the gates into the complex, an old man living in the area had already become our impromptu local “guide” taking us through alley ways of the concrete wash pens and massive boiler machines.

Supposedly up to 5000 dhobis –washer(wo)men- work together everyday boil the garments in massive containers, rinse them through clear water while pounding out dirt, dry them across colorful lines in the afternoon sun, and press them with heavy coal-burning irons, before delivering them back to their institutional or individual clients. The sheer scale of the process is astounding and unlike anything I see in the U.S.

If you are looking for movie recommendations, the movie that is named after the area – Dhobi Ghat – is a beautiful ode to the city of Mumbai. (The movie trailer doesn’t do it justice)

 

Mumbai I

Bangalore will always be home in India, but I gave my heart away to Mumbai. It was my third time visiting the city, and its confluence of history and modernity highlighted with its sparkling diversity never ceases to amaze me.

My 10-day long extended stay was primarily work-related, but here is a series of photos of some of my more exciting adventures (shout out to homegirl Janey)

1. The train: 3 major lines travel north-south, connecting and democratizing the longggg city. The afternoon sun and breeze is such a delight in the open-air. I’m sure it is more rewarding in the hotter rest of the year, after a long sweaty day. 
2. Chor Bazaar: Chor Literally means “thief” in both Hindi and Marathi. Apparently it is said that if you lose anything, you can buy it back from Chor Bazaar. It seems that stolen goods do make their way to the market, but usually they are second-hand antique items. Although it was a bit too late in the evening for us to explore/shop extensively, it was a bliss to get lost in the organized chaos of bustling activity. And not pictured, but a MUST have is the “Taj Ice cream”, which claims to have been around for 125 years. It’s flavor profile and textures remind me a bit of Naturals – also, my favorite – but 300% better.
3. Happy Republic Day! 

Cash is Underrated

A while ago, I had the opportunity to consider the “most under-utilized innovation for solving poverty”. While I hate to make simplifying answers, the prompt made me reflect upon my research as well as the field of “international development” that think about on a daily basis.

Tl;dr: My answer? Cash.

Here’s why:

Considering this prompt, I jogged through recollections of the snazzy landing pages of social ventures with innovations to “solve poverty” I encounter everyday while doing research for my project on social enterprises. I could consider concepts like low-cost solar lanterns (that will increase productivity and thus livelihoods) or education (that will boost human capital), but instead, I would argue for the least exciting: direct cash transfers. To both individuals and organizations.

Or broadly, entrusting liquid assets to recipients with less strings attached, with the belief that they will make the right decisions.

Extensive investments and studies over the years have led to impressive strides in the development sector with increasingly more developmental interventions we are “getting right”. The number of people living under extreme poverty has more than halved since 1990, and primary school enrollment has increased drastically, according to the Millennium Development Goals Report. Given all these successes, however, I find that trust is still left an underutilized virtue.

We still tend to prescribe goods and behavior to the poor, perhaps according to proven evidence, but often based on what we think is important. Through my research, I’ve come across many product and social innovations for the bottom of the pyramid population that failed, simply because of the lack of customer uptake. I’ve heard of numerous examples of lamps or incubators that were mass distributed through firms or NGOs, only to be thrown away due to poor design with little perceived value.

Even in cases of successful uptake, in-kind transfers and even conditional cash transfers are often prescriptive, fundamentally designed to change behavior. This perceived need to predetermine what is needed for the user also affects social entrepreneurs seeking funding. While many enterprises in early stages often depend on grant capital before deemed investable, most grants are earmarked, and thus deter entrepreneurs from allocating the capital in the most needed areas.

Earmarked grants, conditional cash transfers, and in-kind transfers are all valuable and much preferred to their absence.

However, evidence points to the effectiveness of unconditional direct cash transfers as well. Contrary to common assumptions, studies show that the poor does not always misspend (who doesn’t anyway?). Rather, liquid cash allows protection against financial constraints and high costs of loans from moneylenders. Furthermore, cash transfers are cheaper to administer. Most importantly, it implies trust and honors the freedom of choice of all individuals. Perhaps the individual knows what is best for him/herself.

There are many innovations that bring this idea to the forefront.  For individuals, cash transfers can occur directly through policy or organizations. Even facilitating remittances will promote larger cash transfers to many households. The key to success in cash transfers, however, is increasing procedural transparency and preventing corruption. This is where mobile money, and policies like implementing Aadhaar cards for Direct Benefit Transfer in India *if successful*  can play a transformative role.

 

GiveDirectly is an interesting organization that enables direct cash transfers exactly with this philosophy. It allows donors to send money directly to the poor, rather than to organizations — a bit experimental and unproven in concept, but definitely an interesting option and option to consider while giving.

Expanding the scope and apply the idea to social enterprises, ways to provide grant and low-cost capital at more generous and flexible terms will be game changing.

I don’t believe what we are doing is wrong, especially as we, as a global community, continue to expand our interest and broaden our capital base for inclusive development. But with new ways to implement trust, I believe we can unlock a huge potential.

Akshaya Patra: Not your typical NGO

Recently I attended the Development Dialogue Conference, run by the pretty-amazing Deshpande Foundation. We had the opportunity for field visits to the following 5 organizations as well:

• Akshaya Patra, a mid-day meal provider;
• Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya, a beautifully inspiring school that promotes classical Indian music and dance to low-income, single-parent children from Dharwad;
• The Family Planning Association, which provides family planning and sexual health information, counseling, and treatment (which is essential but not easy to access in rural India);
• Reap Benefit, which brought low-cost sinks and toilets to government schools to fundamentally change behaviors towards sanitation;
• The Agastya Foundation, which is the “largest hands-on science program”, even reaching children in remote villages.

I want to highlight the visit to the Hubli-Dharvad production facility of Akshaya Patra, because I was astounded by its sheer magnitude of scale, efficiency, and impact. (Yes, all three buzzwords. But bear with me.)

Akshaya Patra hopes to tackle issues of school attendance and malnutrition, two issues that are very much real and interlinked especially in rural India. The idea is to provide free, quality mid-day meals to schools to encourage children to attend school. It currently reaches more than approx. 1.3 million children in 9 states in India, partnering with more than 10,000 government schools.

Context: Mid-Day Meal Scheme

The Mid-day Meal Scheme is in fact a program run by the government of India that launched in 2004. Akshaya Patra is especially impressive because not only did it start before the mandate in 2002, but its success stands in stark contrast to the better-known failure of the scheme elsewhere in the country. Mid-day meal, in spite of its noble intentions, has been poorly implemented, especially in the mainstream decentralized model where meals are cooked on-site.  For example, teachers may spend all day cooking meals instead of teaching classes. In the absence of adequate infrastructure safety and hygiene can be a challenge, with many reported cases of death and injuries from cooking-related accidents.

Now let me explain how Akshaya Patra that works in a private-public partnership with the government is so impressive.

The kitchen in Hubali-Dharvad alone prepares, packages, and delivers meals to 175,000 children throughout 800 government schools in the region every day. 50% of the cost is subsidized by the government as part of the mid-day meal scheme, which mostly constitutes of the rice and conversion charges with the remainder raised through donations. Here is the cool part: using economies of scale, Akshaya Patra is able to prepare a simple, yet nutritious meal for only 5.5 rupees (less than 10 cents) on average.

The efficiency of operations and uncompromising quality control is apparent throughout the entire chain of production.

The process, starting from the top: 

Akshaya Patra procures and stores grains of rice from the government and vegetables bought from vendors. Usually only 70-80gs of government-provided rice can be used, and sometimes metal is added to the bags to make up for the weight (#goodgovernance). Vegetables are purchased through local vendors on annual contracts with fixed prices, which keeps prices amazingly low (single-digit rupees/kg) and immune to price fluctuations throughout the year.

 

The grains and vegetables are cleaned using in-house cleaning, husk machines, and magnetic devices to separate the metal.

Then, they are lifted up to the top floor, where then the process follows a gravity-driven vertical flow, which also prevents cross-contamination. They are washed and cut on the top floor, cooked on the floor below, and then packaged on the ground floor.

Washing

Incredients washed upstairs “pushed” down to be cooked

Rice is cooked in massive caldrouns

Cooked rice ready for packaging downstairs

[Highly recommend that you click through the images]

Then, they are shipped onto temperature-controlled vehicles to be sent out to the schools within a 60km radius, covering around 4000km daily. The plant is run on biogas, fueled in many parts by its own rice husk and food waste.

Packing

Packaged food is moved on a conveyer belt to the vehicle to be shipped

Factory from outside

[Again, click on the photos for more details]

The Results: 

The entire process involves only 5 hours of cooking, and with extended hours the facility in fact can feed around 100,000 more children. However, its demand has saturated in its locale, and the organization refuses to go beyond its 60km radius as it may compromise the quality and complicate logistics.

The consequent impact on education has been quite amazing as well. According to a Nielson study in 2006, the attendance rate rose from 72% to 89% for 1st-7th standard students. There hasn’t been any major cases of food poisoning after all those meals, and with fairly accurate forecasting systems for next-day student attendance (using Whatsapp, haha) surprisingly, very little food waste is generated as well.

There are 19 kitchens nationally, feeding around 1,200,000 children daily. Most of the operations are decentralized given unique sets of challenges of each area, but accounting and quality control systems are centralized — the organization just opened its food safety and quality control lab.

The organization amazes me with its state-of-the-art technology and operations, something one does not see in the social sector everyday. But beyond that, I am even more moved by the value and dignity in each meal.  Akshaya Patra sacrifices many opportunities to save another rupee or go another mile, because it wants to ensure that each children with the midday meal is not just a beneficiary of a charity, but a valued member of community who receives a proper nutrition and education s/he deserves.

It is encouraging to know that the so-thought failure of a government policy is working in many parts of the country. It is also saddening to know that for each mid-day meal that Akshaya Patra delivered, there are many more children who are missing a meal, working in the field instead of a classroom, or both. However, with new technologies and opportunities with engaging the private sector, I am thrilled to see new roles that organizations can play to turn this around.

*Update: came across a SSIR article covering Akshaya Patra clipped away from last year. Funny how the mind works – I imagine I had no idea I was going to  visit the site.