Manas is a development sector professional with more than 25 years of experience of working on NTFPs, Environment and Bio-diversity, Disaster Management, Poverty and Hunger, Human Rights and Entitlements. Currently, he is working as a Consultant in the Ministry of Rural Development and looking after the flagship scheme of the Government of India – Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana.
He has worked with grassroots organizations, International funder agency as well as with Government Department. He particularly enjoys working on the Rights of people over forest and natural resources and has worked on the implementation of the Forest Rights Act in Odisha.
Q. How has been your journey from IIFM to this role?
A. It’s been a long and spiralling journey towards socio-political work.
When I joined IIFM, I wanted to join NTGCF and work on Tree Cooperatives. Coming from a family whose livelihood was based on milk cooperatives, tree cooperatives seemed a natural step. But somehow, I didn’t qualify to be a candidate for their selection process.
So I went back to my home state (Odisha) and worked with Vasundhara, an NGO set up by Neera M Singh and Kundan Kumar from the very first batch of IIFM’s PGDFM Program. I began to work on Non-Timber Forest Produce, especially to work with the campaign for the termination of the monopoly of a joint sector company on dozens of important NTFPs – especially Tree Based oilseeds. The campaign succeeded in a few years, helped especially by the enactment of the PESA Legislation. The PESA campaign brought me the good luck of conversing with one of the greatest ever Indian civil servants – Dr. B. D. Sharma.
I also worked on the newly emerging field of People’s Biodiversity Registers getting an opportunity to work with Madhav Gadgil (and getting to interact with, albeit briefly, his co-author of the book he was writing then – Ramchandra Guha). Madhav Gadgil taught me to understand that more often than not, the cost of conservation is paid by those who are the least guilty of destroying the forests and the environment – the local people, especially tribal, living in natural habitats.
In 1999, a typical office squabble (no permanent hard feelings as you’ll see later) led me to move out of Vasundhara and join ActionAid to continue working there on NTFPs. But soon in October 1999, a powerful Super Cyclone hit Odisha and I opted to work in relief and rehabilitation work and shifted to the District Headquarter of the Jagatsinghpur district. In a year’s time another squabble – this time my disagreement with an instruction to provide relief and rehabilitation support to only Scheduled Caste People while I voted for extending it to all poor irrespective of caste– led me to shift to another district headquarter – Barmer in Rajasthan. I landed in Barmer on the first day of the new millennium (1st January 2001) to work on building a network of Youth Clubs to work on drought preparedness. But soon two important events led to some drastic changes in my ideas about work.
In 2001, propelled by incidents of hunger deaths from around the country and reports of widespread hunger, a PIL was filed by the PUCL to demand expansion of the public distribution system. This case has subsequently come to be known as the Right to Food Case and the campaign around it as The Right to Food Campaign. Being in Barmer, I was asked by the petitioners to collect evidence for sharing with the court. That set me on the path to understand the state of hunger in Barmer and the country in general. In 2002, a new procedure was launched for identifying the poor and I felt that the 13-point questionnaire would leave out many of the poor while including people better off than them. Those of you who are interested in the way Government questionnaires can be misleading, must take a look at the 13-point questionnaire. Anyway, off we went to try out the questionnaire, comparing it with result from using the PRA skills learnt at IIFM and subsequently strengthened through The PRAXIS Training. We came back with evidence that the new questionnaire indeed left out the poorest and included the better off. We expanded that exercise by training youth club members and replicated it in a few dozen villages. Armed with the evidence PUCL filed a separate petition to call off the new questionnaire survey. The government went ahead with the survey but the case led to a stay on the use of the survey results. By the stay was finally taken off, most states had rejected that. In 2008, Odisha made one final attempt to implement the survey results. But by that time, we had big data on how the implementation would make Koraput seem better off than Cuttack. Odisha too called off the implementation of the survey results.
In 2002, Barmer faced a major drought and we began relief work. We found that the relief (government as well as non-government) for livestock was targeted only at Cattle and left out Goats and Sheep, the bedrock of the livelihoods of the poor, especially poor women in Western Rajasthan (and across much of India). So, we lobbied with a major donor (European Union) to allow us to use their support for providing feed & fodder for goats and sheep. They not only did agree to that, but they also made it mandatory for the other 5 INGOs they were supporting. This led me to an abiding interest in relief and compensation norms in disasters and I have found that norms mostly discriminate against the poor and the Dalits. In 2010 (while working in the Kosi Flood Rehabilitation program) I came across the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights and since then I have been working with them (in my personal capacity) to work for making the National and State Relief Norms more progressive and pro-poor, pro-Dalit, and pro-Tribal. We have had a few successes. But much remains to be done.
In 2003, a campaign for the Employment Guarantee Act emerged as a sort of sister movement of the Right to Food Campaign. I began to work on that too. And it has been my entry point to working with the Government in different capacities.
From 2002 to March 2022, I have taken up different assignments. Within ActionAid, I have worked as Program Manager facilitating MGNREGA, as Regional Manager for Odisha & Chhattisgarh, Coordinator of Learning on Disaster Response, and Senior Manager of Policy. I left in 2012 to join the Government of Odisha as the Director for Social Audit and left that in 2014. It seemed to me, as though there was actually no real work on Social Audit and that the government didn’t have any intention to do so. But I may be wrong. From 2014 to 2016 I worked as a Consultant with The Ministry of Rural Development on Participatory Planning for MGNREGA. This was a fantastic period where my IIFM learning on several areas including PRA, Land & Planning, Silviculture, etc. were quite useful.
From 2016 to 2019, I went back to my first organization, Vasundhara, to work as Director and then Executive Director. This brought me back to my first love, the rights of people over forests and natural resources. Vasundhara now focuses greatly on the implementation of the Forest Rights Act and that became my principal focus for the three and half years I spent in my second term with Vasundhara. What appealed most to me, this phase was the continuous conflating of Forest Neighbouring Communities and Tribal Communities. While Tribal communities form bulk of the people living near and depending on forests, it is necessary to remember that there are a large number of other people, especially Dalits and OBCs who have similar dependence. The idea of Tribal being indigenous and Dalits not being so, has continued to create rifts between these two very marginalized communities, often leading to violence and leading to their inability to come together for joint action. The 2008 communal violence in Kandhamal had earlier led me to understand that those working with Tribal communities have a responsibility in breaking the myths around the differences between Tribal and Dalits.
In 2019, I decided that I would become a full-time consultant and work especially as a trainer on forest rights, and entitlements in general, for building inter-community understanding & harmony, and for deepening the roots of democracy and constitutionalism. However, by 2021, it was becoming clear such work would not be able to support the lifestyle or the fetish for security I had gotten into. It’s too late to change the lifestyle or give up my fear of insecurity. So, I changed my work. Now I work as a consultant in the Ministry of Rural Development doing my bit to improve the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin.
Q. What were some of the key milestones/learning in this journey that you would like to share with us?
A. I have already written a lot about the milestones and learning in the last question. But a few milestones that I can identify are:
Working for Tribal communities and other Forest Neighbouring Communities and understanding the denial of rights and the pauperization they have suffered.
Gaining an understanding of how existing Government Programs might have been designed from the perspective of the people who designed them, rather than those for whom such programs are meant.
Working with Movements and Campaigns in one’s personal capacity and ensuring that donor money doesn’t co-opt such movements and campaigns.
Q. What is the most satisfying part of your current role?
A. It allows me to contribute to small changes that might make the PMAY-G houses better for the elderly, persons with disability, and poor people in general.
It doesn’t require me to work beyond office hours and gives me adequate time to do other work that I am passionate about.
Q. Has your learning at IIFM helped in shaping how you approach your professional roles?
A. Absolutely. Many of the courses I went through (I shudder to say studied) are still useful in real-life work. The open-ended nature of employment prospects helped one choose whatever one fancied, instead of being straitjacketed to any particular sector or industry.
Q. Who (or what) are the biggest influences or drivers in your careers. What would be your advice to freshers and IIFM graduates who are looking to choose similar sectors/roles?
A. From my first boss, who introduced me to the idea of the rights of people to the various activists who pushed me from being an INGO worker to being a part of campaigns and movements (I am not sure if I should thank them or blame them for doing so). Bosses who have stood up for me, defended me, and given me opportunities for new work. I have a lot of people to be thankful for.
As for advice to people who are in or want to be in the so-called development sector: If you want to have greater freedom of choice in work, you have to keep your needs low and lifestyle minimalistic.
If possible, work close to the people. Spend a few nights in a year in the houses of poor people and especially people from communities other than yours, in rural areas or in urban slums. You will find more meaning in your work. I must apologize to those of you who are denied this opportunity on account of your caste or religion. See how important our work still is.
Talk to people. Anywhere you go, everywhere you go. Especially, talk to people who have been working in villages or slums for long and at very low salaries, driven mostly by their commitment.
Ensure that you have enough friends from communities other than what you consider to be your own community – in terms of Caste, Ethnicity, Religion, Language, and Class. You must have many friends from other genders. Make friends outside your age group. It’s easy to fall into the trap of being centred around one’s own community, gender, and age group. And run fast, from people who tell you that your caste, your religion, your ethnic group, your language, your class, or your gender is somehow superior to others. I said run. I was joking. Empathize with such people and try to cure them.
Learn to not hate people. Even if they are from the privileged classes. Even if you come from an underprivileged background. Learn not to teach hate. Even if the people you work with have suffered from discrimination and hatred. They’ll not gain from becoming hateful.
Do not keep your passion restricted to your job. For the luckiest ones, their passion becomes their job. I have been lucky that way many times. But very often you may need to keep the fire burning even in a very cold and damp place. Perhaps that’s when the fire is needed even more.
Q. What are your favorite memories during your IIFM days?
A. Too many. But to jot down some:
The evening tea at the Dining Hall and the long chats behind the Dining Hall and on it’s lawn.
The volleyball games. Taking turns at the old computer terminals to play Digger. How many of you have even heard of such a game?
The two months of Field Work and the two Internships (they were called OTs then). In one such OT, walking in the night and without any lighting over a long rope bridge in Arunachal Pradesh. And another 10 km night trek through the forest when the timber loaded truck broke down.
The accidental fall into the stream that led to two of my finest friends becoming partners for life.
The invitations from the faculty members for dinner at their house. Many. But surely remembering the Late Prof. B R Mehta (he called himself the big bull and we concurred).
Holi in the moat. And the cleaning of the moat to make it decent enough for Holi – which itself (justifiably) was rather not very decent.
The welcome balloon dances in 1994. And at the farewell, picking up people lying in their own vomit, and carrying them back to their rooms in 1996.
Q. In hindsight, what was the biggest contribution (courses, faculty, library, friends, and alumni. Anything else!!) or take away from IIFM that you think played a critical role in shaping you as an individual or professional?
A. When I appeared at the selection process, the topic for Group Discussion was “whether the reservation system is good or bad”. It sort of prepared me for the culture of open discussion about controversial subjects that life at IIFM stood for. Over the two years, we had many debates and if we ever go in to politics, we can teach the MPs and MLAs a thing or two about how to debate without throwing objects at each other.
My friends from IIFM went for diverse livelihood options and this has added a bit to my respect for the different people I work with.
It introduced me to people from other communities and must have helped me in reducing undue pride in my own community – a key necessity if one wants to work as a trainer.
It taught me patience. Some call it laziness. But better be lazy than destroy the planet.
Q. The best friends / seniors /faculty at IIFM? Some memorable tidbits that you like to share.
A. We had a very small batch. We were 24 for a few months and then ended up with 23. It’s difficult to even think that one or the other was not my best friend. But like everyone in our batch, we keep missing Rajiv Singh, who passed away within five years of our passing out. His photograph is most often the status photo of our batch WhatsApp group.
I liked many teachers. But had sort of special fondness for Prof. P K Biswas who was a Bengali with children whose mother tongue was Odia. Put that down to my parochialism or the affection shared with us by Prof. Biswas and his family.
Q. As an alumnus, what is your advice to freshers or those are joining IIFM to get best out of the 2 years there?
A. Study. Debate. Play. Walk. Love. Not necessarily in that order.
Q. What is your typical day at the office?
A. I write policy notes. Revise them. And Re-revise them. Call up States to get data and to find out if they need any help. Write down status papers and briefs and revise them and re-revise them. Check on Dashboards and Databases to see if there’s anything worth reporting or enquiring about.
Q. And how about weekends, Hobbies, Family and anything else you want to add?
A. My wife and me have two sons, 13 years and 3 years respectively. My family lives in Odisha while I live in Delhi right now. Children’s education, wife’s job, and a general distaste and fear for big cities being the reason behind not shifting to Delhi altogether.
Weekends are spent reading, watching movies, and visiting the Daryaganj, Old Books Market. Like most of my friends I buy more books than I read. I am looking for a deaddiction centre for the treatment of watching Kapil Sharma shows on mobile instead of reading a book on paper or kindle.
Q. Favorite Books, movies, authors.
A. Reading Gandhi/Nehru/Bose/Ambedkar and a bit of Rajendra Prasad. Patel didn’t write much, so his speeches. Generally Indian history, biographies/autobiographies, and especially the history of the freedom movement and the development of the constitution. As a twenty-something, I thought “Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” to be my favourite book. Before that it was “Animal Farm”. Mark Twain, GB Shaw, Jerome K Jerome, PG Wodehouse, Rushdie, Coetzee…. are few of my favourite authors. Among the current lot in Hollywood, I am diehard Tom Hanks fan (Bridge of Spies is my favorite), and in Bollywood, I am a fan of his follower Amir Khan, and of Vidya Balan. Sanjeev Kumar, Amol Palekar and Rakhee among the older lot. Raj Kapoor (Teesri Kasam) and Devanand (Guide) are among my favorites. Bringing movies and reading together is Devananda whose autobiography is one of the finest I have ever read.
Q. IIFM is driven by alumni’s passion and commitments towards its goal. How would you like to contribute to IIFM or IIFM alumni, students?
A. I would love to spend time with the students if IIFM can make that opportunity available. There is so much to talk about.
Q. What do you think is different at IIFM now vs when you studied there? What do you think is a positive change and what is not?
A. I loved IIFM in my time and can’t really say much about what has changed. A lot of the changes are in keeping with what’s changing in the world outside. The time I spent with a batch of IIFM students in 2019-20, made me feel that things have changed for the better. The campus is now greener. In keeping with the outside world, access to computers etc. has gone up – we were the last batch to have joined before the internet. The new crowd is more aware and informed and more interested in the world in general.
But I keep fearing about some things. I hear that the fees have gone up. If the fees have become so high that some people are not joining because they don’t have enough money, it would be a negative change. Too much emphasis on IIFM becoming self-sufficient would be a negative change too if that’s happening. If the total days of fieldwork/internship is coming down, that would be a negative thing.
Q. Any suggestions on who you want to get profiled/interviewed here?
A. I would love to read about Ramnarayan Kalyanaraman from PFM 1994! He was working in NTGCF, afterward renamed as FES.