NGOs need mechanisms to check their progress

CHENNAI: With challenges in society changing over the decades, non-governmental organisations should develop benchmarks to check the progress they have made over the years, said former executive director of the National Institute of Design and social writer Ashoke Chatterjee. “Institutions working in the social sector should focus on this,” said Chatterjee, who has authored a book, Rising Utthan, based on the experiences of the volunteers of the non-profit organisation ‘Utthan’ in Gujarat. The book documents the work of volunteers of Utthan in the Bhal region in coastal Saurashtra. “After the incidents of violence in 2002 in Gujarat, the organisation, which had been working in the development sector for three decades, attempted to make sense of the progress it had made. As a result of that brainstorming effort, I attempted to do a two-page note on which areas the organisation had contributed to, and where they are heading. Instead of a brief note, a book emerged when I began interactions with field officers about this issue,” said Ashoke Chatterjee, who was in the city recently. Chatterjee is a former executive director of the National Institute of Design and president of the Crafts Council of India. He currently volunteers in the water and sanitation sector.“Activists and development organisations should check their progress as an institution and need indicators for the same. Utthan’s indicator is how many leaders they have developed in the regions that they work in,” he explained.Noting that development in the future could happen not just by the government, he said there were many stakeholders that could bring about growth in society today, including the corporate sector and civil society groups. “Utthan is assisting fishermen, a marginalised community in the ‘vegetarian state’ of Gujarat, to develop lobster fattening programmes as an additional revenue source. These fishermen, however, are wary of involving the private sector like hotels for the same, because they fear loss of profits by these middlemen. But the private sector should also be part of the development chart,” he explained.  Earlier, Chatterjee interacted with media persons during an event organised by the Press Institute of India on Monday. Also present during the interaction were Sashi Nair, editor, and V Murali, director of Press Institute of India - Research Institute for Newspaper Development.