Transcript

The Ripple Effect: Measuring Impact Beyond Numbers | Diksha Sekhri | TEDxIIHMR U

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kNQmR_VYUI
Video ID: 3kNQmR_VYUI
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earlier this year I experienced the most powerful moment of my career in social impact and it was only because of one person this person let me introduce you to Tavi DVI she is a a semi- literate woman from a remote Village of nagard in the sirohi district of Rajasthan we enabled her to become a solar engineer so she could Electrify homes in her Village here's proof we didn't stop there we brought her to the largest global platform in the world the IPL right the Indian Premier League the most valuable cricket league in the world wherein she actually presented a solar lamp which she had made herself to our captain the Rajasthan Royals Captain Sanju Samson and Fa toi the captain of the Bangalore team while this visual went out to millions of viewers globally there was one set of viewers which was particularly important her family up till a year ago they did not even have access to electricity and now they sat huddled together to watch her take on the global stage what this did for women in her region was spectacular first she became a local icon she started getting uh invited to be a chief guest at various events she became the brand ambassador for the election commission as well this inspired all the women of her village women who were never allowed to step out of their homes started coming up to us saying can we also do something like this what this one moment did it was enabled by an i franchise right and it has now changed the trajectory of the lives of women in that Village so this got me thinking that yes while it Chang the lives of the women of her Village her District did it also do something for the women of Rajasthan did it also do something for the women of India how are we creating programs and then actually measuring the impact that happens through this because this intervention bringing her to you know an IPL event was never part of the plan but it had such a profound impact one that we have not been measuring at all so I looked through a lot of impact models and there are some very brilliant ones out there but I couldn't find one that was capturing the Butterfly Effects of small actions on nation building so I took inspiration from various models that let's take the example of a of a project that we do in our village right we basically do an access to Water Project what's the first step in our project we provide women with access to a farm pond what does that Farm Pond do it gives her immediate access to water and this ensures that for 4 to 8 hours a day she does not have to spend collecting water right next we get her training through SS and and agriculture universities and wormy composting pits are provided this ensures that she starts to view her Farm as a business right and she can have a second crop she doubles or triples her income post that we also provide them exposure to global leaders we bring in women women from across India corporate leaders Olympians to interact with the women leaders from The Villages through this knowledge exchange the women realize that they can be so much more as they identify with the women who are coming from the corporate India right beyond that we also enroll them in grassroot leadership programs through this the women are able to learn everything from entrepreneurship to riding bikes now they are empowered with not knowledge confidence and Mobility now if we want to look at this impact typically what we do is we only look at the impact it have H has on her maybe her family and maximum the community right and The Village at large but what is that doing for the nation have we ever thought about that what is that doing for the state of Rajasthan have we ever thought about that so it got me thinking can tavri DVI actually impact the GDP of our country country so here's a model that I want to look talk about is the humanity impact framework right let's start at the core the individual what happens to the woman when she gets access to water apart from the 4 to8 hours that are saved we have to ask ourselves that with the free time in her schedule now what is she doing with it is she learning a new skill is she earning more money through a new source of livelihood is she able to spend more time time teaching her children or is she just spending it on Leisure that is the first thing that we need to think about but before that what is the access to water doing it is reducing a barrier to survival for her right she's getting clean drinking water for herself and her family and beyond that she's able to plant um crops throughout the year she's able to have fruits and vegetables and this provides nutrition to her family it impacts healthare directly this intervention second it changes her social status suddenly from being the woman who was only collecting water she is now a woman who's bringing home some money she's now a woman who's actually managing different parts of her house right so people in the village will start looking at her differently oh she's got an infrastructure that's the Tipping Point of a complete change in her life and that will change her perception in the community next how is the this pro project impacting the family unit the very first thing it will do is uh let's think about this the daughter would also be going to collect water with her maybe now the daughter can go to school right uh maybe her husband does not have to migrate to the city for you know finding an odd job they can start moving from survival to living that would be a massive change for the family unit and then can the Next Generation start to drink team bigger aspire to be more because once you're not thinking about the next meal you can actually have and afford to have dreams and that's what it will do there'll be a long-term shift in economic Mobility for them they can start thinking that okay maybe U I can be a fashion designer my daughter can be something that she's always wanted to be there's no reason to get them off married at a younger age and finally gender roles can evolve when families when when within families mothers and sisters start taking decisions and are part of you know actually have bringing in the livelihood into the homes the next generation gets inspired it sets a very very powerful example eventually this can help to break the cycle of poverty what happens in our current assessment is we do not look at this long-term impact we look at the impact for one year and two years we for forget to think about what this happens what happens for the Next Generation next we look at the community lens so Community is not just a group of people it is a dynamic structure where any change in a part affects the whole right so when we see when we talk about social status and Collective identity when individually the women are feeling are able to do more they are part of decision making right the community can come together and they feel more stronger more confident that yes we can pull ourselves out of very dire situations it creates a social capital wherein people are coming together to form maybe farmer producer organizations right so individual Farms now farmer producer organizations can be formed they can go and have go and negotiate Collective rates at the Munday at the apmc at the larger markets right uh SGS which are sell help groups they can be formed to create a small business units for organic manure or stitching it creates a whole ripple effect within the community now let's look let's take a slightly wider View and go to the state right does this program also reduce the state burden what do I mean by that the state has to provide resources to every Community right so whether it's a village or a city or a town the state is respons responsible for them so let's take the example of our water project again according to the National region plan in 2021 the requirement for water for irrigation alone was 4,249 Million cubic M that's a big big number so we did a small calculation if we enable 1,000 Farm ponds that reduces the burden on the ex Checker by 1% now imagine if there are 100 projects like that in Rajasthan how much can that actually reduce the burden on the state now let me add a layer here I work for an IPL franchise and I started thinking about this last year that when is the demand for water the highest the peak of summer when does IPL happen in the peak of Summer right if there's a particularly difficult year a drought year right the state should not be in a situation where they have to make a choice between giving what water to Farmers for irrigation or giving water for the cricket field because IPL is an economic Bonanza in itself you cannot ignore that so in this way if the villages and communities can become self-sufficient it really can reduce the burden on the state next let let's look at the key indicators and the change in perceptions so the key indications like indicators like education employment these all change right at a small from a small level it gets compounded to a large level but let's talk about the perceptions have you ever Googled and and Google image search of Rajasthani woman what is the first image that pops up a woman with a gungat and a mutka over her head right this is the perception of the state today and this is a very uh disturbing perception because that's probably not even true right it it reinforces patriarchy it shows that we are the there's no water in the state it shows that the women's only role is collecting water it shows that it's not probably a state that wants to be developed and we all know sitting here that that is not the True Image so we can change the perception if we can make communities water sufficient that perception in itself can change and then let's take a step back let's look at the national lens right now we are talking about contribution to GDP what what does that mean let's take the same example thousand Farmers they have Farm pawns now they are all having produce all through the year right the farm productivity has gone up by double or even triple due to you know with irrigation and other technology that is being applied now the region is now suddenly food secure not only that if we do it correctly we can actually start exporting this not just domestically but internationally and that can directly contribute to the GDP of our country second let's look at what happens across the states right we're talking about global perception here now I'm just giving the example of the water project in Rajasthan but what about the thousands of projects that are happening across the country Karnataka will be having their own projects Maharashtra everyone is trying to solve different different problems but we are not capturing how that is coming together if we do look at that the global perception will change that okay this is a country that even if they have problems they know how to solve it something must have gone wrong at some time but today they don't want that to stop them or deter them in any way this can bring in more investors more industry it can change diplomatic relations for our country finally impact is it's it's not just a number impact is about how the change to one person's life can Inspire communities and transform Nations right and how will we know that impact has happened so when you do a Google image search next time for Rajasthani woman and instead of this image when this image shows up we will know that tavri DVI has in fact impacted the GDP of our country thank you [Applause]