Approach to Development: My Experience in Pradan

Bharat Chandra Mohanty . October 22, 2010

An apprentice’s reminiscences about his early days in PRADAN leads to a frank examination of the processes of intervention, the pitfalls, the initial failure, the mourning about the lack of depth in engagement with individuals because of the pressure of achieving targets and numbers, and the learning from early setbacks.

An apprentice’s reminiscences about his early days in PRADAN leads to a frank examination of the processes of intervention, the pitfalls, the initial failure, the mourning about the lack of depth in engagement with individuals because of the pressure of achieving targets and numbers, and the learning from early setbacks.

I resigned from PRADAN on 25 October 2008, to join AXIS Bank as an Agri Operation Officer. My responsibility is to look after the agri portfolio of four branches attached to the cluster so that these remain in a financially profitable position without any further accretion to the category of Non Performing Assets (NPAs). The job requires me to visit clients, who are irregular with repayment, and pose a threat to their status, thereby undermining the business of lending to earn profit. This was an entirely new experience for me; I was required to exert pressure on delinquent clients so that they fall in line and start repaying the debt they owe the bank. As I moved about in the villages, in an attempt to ensure proper recovery and to source potential clients, I was reminded of the days that I had spent in Hatgamharia, a sub-location of West Singhbhum team, Jharkhand. I remember the day I joined PRADAN vividly; it marked the onset of my professional career. When reflecting on my acts of commission and omission during the stint I spent in PRADAN, I find, though not surprisingly, several situations in which I could have acted/reacted differently and probably more creatively, thus triggering a more vibrant response from other significant stakeholders, including the community, that could probably have culminated on a different note. This is an attempt to spell out some of these situations in which I was in a dilemma and unable to chart an effective course of action towards the desired destination.

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