Back home, I've realized that while you followed my adventures -- tigers, elephants, burning bodies -- many of you struggled to understand why, exactly, did I go to India?
Being a 'consultant' I often have to defend that I am in fact 'doing' something.... in this case, my client was Oxfam, a charity working to alleviate poverty.
In India, 2/3rds the population are farmers, of whom 80% live in extreme poverty - earning a whooping ONE DOLLAR FIFTY CENTS A DAY. Now, thinking that India has 1 Billion people (seemingly all crammed into Delhi), when you do the math... well shit, that comes to 1B x 66% X 80% -- 600,000,000 people. Emm, that's like twice the size of the United States. What can I do to help them?
Talking with the farmers I quickly learned: help find buyers. India's marketplace is quickly changing. "Modern retail" has entered India -- the equivalent of super-walmarts and targetlands are growing 50% a year in a country where tiny bodegas were the only 'stores' before.
We wanted to help poor farmers sell their goods within these new markets in an equitable way . We partnered with a new company that had just started buying directly from small farmers. As we studied their business, we found that simple changes, like including women in trainings and communicating specifics on crops needed, could help the farmers make a better living -- and improve business at the same time. Oxfam and the company are now working together to make some of these changes.
It was at lot of blood, sweat and tears and, honestly, I cannot see much direct impact of my work. But if the company can even make a few incremental improvements, the effect could ripple out to the 1 million poor farmers it works with. Although unsatisfyingly indirect, I can only hope I am helping far, far more people, even if in a small way.
Ahh, the bleeding heart power of capitalism.
We wanted to help poor farmers sell their goods within these new markets in an equitable way . We partnered with a new company that had just started buying directly from small farmers. As we studied their business, we found that simple changes, like including women in trainings and communicating specifics on crops needed, could help the farmers make a better living -- and improve business at the same time. Oxfam and the company are now working together to make some of these changes.
It was at lot of blood, sweat and tears and, honestly, I cannot see much direct impact of my work. But if the company can even make a few incremental improvements, the effect could ripple out to the 1 million poor farmers it works with. Although unsatisfyingly indirect, I can only hope I am helping far, far more people, even if in a small way.
Ahh, the bleeding heart power of capitalism.
