Future Plans: Mission 2030 for SEWA Rural

In spite of the many candidly expressed limitations, the organisation was quite successful at many fronts. Due to this and also the rapidly changing world, several issues in the country and our area were solved whereas many new ones have emerged. In this changing scenario, what should be the projects, strategies and approach of the organisation over the next 10 to 15 years? To answer this question, after much thought and discussion, we have tried to express our views in this section. Mainly, this section will cover topics like opportunities and challenges in a changing world, the relevance of the vision and mission as articulated in 1980, a glimpse of future projects, resources to make them a success, and the sustainability of the organisation. This section is the result of yearlong reflection and discussion among core members.

There is a big difference in India and our work area now compared to 2015. It is essential to understand this difference for the organisation to remain vibrant and relevant. During this period, material poverty has decreased; the access to the public service has improved, whereas education and awareness has increased. More avenues for employment are being developed. Mother-child mortality has decreased. Many industries have come to Jhagadia. A total of 22 doctors are working in SEWA Rural’s Kasturba Hospital. Many of the consultants are knowledgeable and experienced in their areas of expertise. The staff has a good idea and respect for the organisation’s mission and objectives.

But, on the other hand, the poverty, malnutrition and addiction still exist on a large scale in tribal areas. The standard of values in society is being lowered. The disparity between the rich and poor has increased. Due to the inadequate quality of health services in public and private sectors, large number of poor people has lost their lives and money. According to the international journal the ‘Lancet’, about 40 million Indians become poor every year due to the extra-ordinary medical expenses. On top of this, issues of inequality, pollution, corruption, and discrimination become more glaring. Thus even now, the lives of large numbers of rural tribals and under-privileged are full of poverty, trouble, anxiety and disease. Due to industries in our work area, ‘neo middle class’ of labourers from other states have settled here in large numbers. These new vocal patients alongside our poor tribal patients make us think about the pertinence of our poor-centred mission. Unfortunately, the youth of the new generation is dejected about solving these social issues. Everyone is very busy working for their own superficial, individual, selfish goal. For some valid as well as underhanded reasons, the role of voluntary organisations is becoming limited. It is more complicated to satisfactorily meet legal requirements. Along with increased awareness, every section of society expects skilled professional work on top of dedication from workers. The numbers of beneficiaries in the hospitals is increasing leaps and bounds. We continue to discuss how to maintain our values and modus operandi in this ever-increasing work.

In this changing scenario, how much of the 1980 mission is valid today? Is our sadhana of the three-pronged mission of service to the poor, preservation of values and development of employees still worthwhile? Should this mission be altered? In many frank discussions among us various arguments were tossed to and fro. Should we be a little ‘practical’? Should the ‘neo middle class’ also be included in our priorities? Considering the rapidly increasing number of workers should our ‘attachment’ and insistence on values be relaxed?

After long discussions it was concluded that our mission of service to the poor, preservation of values and self-development are even more necessary, relevant and important for the future of the organisation now in 2015 compared to 1980. Though the neo-middle class may take advantage of the organisation’s activities, where important decisions are actively taken it is the poor that have to be kept at the centre. What better service can be given than keeping values intact in today’s world? It also became evident that in order to keep our work poor-centric, more hard-work, sacrifice, courage and creativity will be needed.

But … this is not enough. Along with sustaining above mentioned elements in the rapidly changing times, the need for ‘willingness to change’ is obvious to all of us. An important change that can be touched upon here is to try to make our work more impactful without drastically increasing the size of the organisation, diluting the mission and objectives. For this to happen, intense contemplation and active efforts are being made to make our activities more impactful. Some of the strategies thought are as following:

1. The hospital infrastructure will be expanded to accommodate growing number of patients. We aim to provide most modern care for the most vulnerable population in the fields of obstetrics-gynecology, paediatrics, general medicine, ophthalmology, general surgery and public health.
2. Research centre meant to chronicle what was learnt in these 35 years, experiment new poverty removal techniques, and record all this in a scientific manner. To inform other poor areas in the country of our findings and thus let the fragrance of service spread far and wide. In this way the poor and underprivileged in other parts may directly or indirectly also gain from our work.
3. To increase the organisation’s effectiveness, we are thinking about starting a project to find empathic young men and women so that they may become tomorrow’s ‘change-makers’. If 100 such young men and women can be given proper direction and expertise they can make 100 SEWA Rurals in their areas.
4. The organisation may work as a ‘bridge’ by linking the needy people directly with existing/available external resources so that even without our active efforts the life of the last man in society may be transformed.
5. Considering the industrialisation of Jhaghadia taluka it may be necessary to start work in a far, more interior, poorer and difficult area.
6. Considering the increasing number of workers in the organisation, it is essential to make more effort and attend to workers’ self-development to maintain our standard of values. If the present “Parivaar-bhavana” (Family-ness among employees), cooperation, impartiality and abounding overall spirit of the organisation be kept intact for another 20 years, this may be the greatest achievement of all. In fact, even though a single new project is not undertaken, to maintain this environment is our most important responsibility. By God’s grace, in the last 3 to 4 years a team has been made to give form to this responsibility. Through various innovative steps it is doing wonderful work and its efforts will continue full steam.
7. We need to nurture the constructive work/approach in all our programs.
8. To implement the above ambitious projects the organisation’s strong management must continue to flourish. A combination of sound management principles and sincere emotions will be essential. The most important factor will be human resources. There was a zeal for the mission, practical intuition and respect-trust-love between the founding members and first-generation of workers in the organisation. To maintain this, the sutra that gave birth to the organisation ‘for one’s freedom and good of all’, must be carefully more internalised. May we continue to openly welcome spirituality and enjoy nourishing it.