Once a Pradanite, Always a Pradanite

Looking back at the beginning of his journey with PRADAN, the trials and tribulations, the highs and lows, an ex-PRADANite recalls the enriching aspects of his learning that he cherishes to this day.

W hile studying rural management in Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar (XIMB), I was somewhat keen to pursue a career in health. I had done my summer and winter training in CARE and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Both these organizations promised many comforts to its employees. CARE and UNFPA deal with child and reproductive health. As an intern, I had to carry out a mid-term evaluation of their projects, namely the Integrated Nutrition and Health Project-II of CARE and the Integrated Population Development Project of UNFPA. The work setting provided for high pay, accommodation in good hotels, conveyance by taxi and AC travel in trains. These facilities were far better than those being offered by other corporate companies, where many of my batch-mates were undergoing their training. This deluxe lifestyle, which came with the job, became one of my primary incentives for wanting to join a plush NGO working in the area of health. The dream faded when no such NGO came to the campus for interviews. While I was pondering about my options, one of my professors, Shri. S.S. Singh, advised me to think seriously about organizations such as PRADAN and the Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology (CAPART). It was a difficult decision because my seniors kept telling me about the tough rural life that would be mine should I join such an organization.

I recall that when I was a child, one of my cousins used to work with PRADAN. My father had once commented that it would be better for him to work in the government as a grade three employee instead of wasting his life in PRADAN. Work in an NGO was considered lowly. The image of a social worker working in NGOs in the remote areas of Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj was of a jhola-carrying variety. NGOs were mostly thought of as organizations started by unemployed men, who would have an armada of vehicles, but were none the richer. Activist NGOs, on the other hand, were categorized as those that were primarily interested in finding faults with the system.