Unleashing the Creative Potential of the Base of the Economic Pyramid
Abstract
Innovations for inclusive development seem to be an imperative in Indian society. Recent elections have reminded the elites about the need to understand regional, sectoral and social aspirations and the gaps in the delivery. The inclusion can take place not just in the material, menial and motivational space. It has also to take place in the intellectual space. Indian aspiration for becoming a knowledge society cannot be fulfilled if the knowledge richness of the common people does not become the cornerstone of overall development. We are not there as yet but we are getting close.
The experience of Honey Bee Network demonstrates the possibility of inclusive development through (a) recognition, respect and reward for grassroots green innovators and outstanding traditional knowledge holders, (b) blending formal and informal science to develop value added technologies, (c) converting ideas, innovations and traditional knowledge into products and services for diffusion through commercial and non-commercial channels, (d) triggering entrepreneurial process at grassroots through provision of risk capital, mentoring, forging joint enterprises, etc., and (e) creating public goods in the form of multi language, multimedia annotated databases (see examples at www.sristi.org), open source technologies and institutional structures for local analysis, validation and value addition for community care.
Unleashing the Creative Potential of the Base of the Economic Pyramid
Genesis:
One of the questions, which was discussed in the very first issue of Honey Bee newsletter was: Will the knowledge of people make the resources so valorised that the people who produce or contribute labour to produce may themselves not be able to afford that knowledge? The example was of tea leaves. The workers who collect the tea leaves cannot afford the best of the leaves they collect. Only the dust collected after filtering the best tea leaves is what poor can often afford. Question was relevant and spurred lot of other critical comments, some by us and some by others, for instance, there was a cartoon in which the cows were asking professor that they could not live on his paper alone. A dialectical process of identifying contradictions and dealing with them through institutional innovations has been one of the integral features of Honey Bee Network. While developing an MIS for National Innovation Foundation (NIF), we are trying to incorporate queries through which the grassroots innovators can not only find out the fate of their own technologies but also the patterns in the overall responsiveness of the organisation over space. Thus any biases in the allocation of resources or responsiveness to the technologies can be seen by any user of NIF’s facilities. New standards of accountability have to be created in a manner that true empowerment of knowledge rich, economically poor people takes place.
Global silence on grassroots creativity:
A simple search on the web on various key words related to grassroots innovations, creativity and attributed traditional knowledge [as distinct from institutionalised anonymous knowledge] will reveal an extraordinary silence and a zone of darkness. Why should even after 20 years and inspite of CBD, TRIPS, WIPO and WTO, there should be such a great silence on the issue of unaided creativity and innovation at grassroots? Why should there be so few examples about a phenomena which should appear to be so fundamental to the spirit of participative and entrepreneurial development?
There could be many reasons for some of which perhaps we are responsible. By insisting on the philosophy of Honey Bee Network as the guiding principle, we may have raised the standards of accountability too high. For instance, every knowledge holder has to be acknowledged, knowledge must be shared in local language facilitating people to people learning, everybody in the value chain should be acknowledged and fair and just share of the benefits must go back to the people from whom knowledge was obtained. Anybody associated with Honey Bee Network cannot do consultancy and earn private income till the knowledge holders remain deprived and economically disadvantaged. This has meant many road blocks. I remember a case in South Africa when a few non-African professionals showed lot of interest in spreading the Honey Bee Network and then developed cold feet when they realised that they could not have earned their professional fees out of it. My argument is simple. If people are sharing their knowledge without charging a fees, what moral right do we have to charge a fees for merely facilitating the knowledge exchange and value addition. At the same time, I must confess that we do make compromises. For instance, if we need designers to make the products consumer friendly, ergonomically more efficient, then we have to pay their fees. Since our resources have remained frozen for last nine years, we can pay such fees in only a few cases.
Similarly, we do get pro bono help from IPR lawyers [the only professional community to extend such help in India and abroad] but there also some expenses and the government fees have to be paid. The point is that while building a value chain for grassroots innovations when professionals start enriching themselves, they betray the trust that innovators have put in outsiders. The very rationale of Honey Bee Network gets questioned if the exploitation and power asymmetry [knowledge asymmetry will always be there] in the knowledge economy continues as before.
May be it will take time for markets to learn how to monitor misery.
The recent meltdown gives an opportunity for rethinking the moral basis of markets so that structuring of policies in public and private spaces in future can be done more fairly and with greater compassion. Let me give you example. I just came back from a mini shodh yatra, which we had organised with Ganatar, an organisation working for the education of the children of salt workers in the desert of Little Rann of Kutchch. In a region where there are no trees, or milestones, the birds are nurtured by hanging baskets for them in the huts. While digging wells for pumping brine, carbon monoxide can be fatal. Pigeons sense it faster than humans and give a minute and half for the workers to get out of the well. That is the distance between life and death. The knowledge of salt workers about minerals, climate, soil, plants and wildlife is very rich. Notwithstanding what foresters may say, a conservationist cannot miss the fact that wild ass does not find salt workers a hindrance in their mobility or existence. In fact, they seem to like their company. Why else would they be found much more in the proximity of salt workers and their settlements? The knowledge of some of the economically poorest people can generate products and services, which with little blending of formal science can generate enormous opportunities for formal sector. Magnesium Chloride is extracted from the salt pan using traditional methods in somewhat in pure form. What is sold at 50 Rs. Per bag after purification with an easy process becomes 120 times more valuable. None of the share of that value accrues to the local people. Similarly salt workers know about the anti fungal and anti biotic property of the beaten, concentrated residue left in the salt pan and yet no product has been developed so far. Word wild search on the plant Suedea Maritima shows an upsurge of global interest in this plant on which very rich traditional knowledge exists. There are many pressures petro chemicals which can be extracted based on the already available public domain scientific knowledge. But if no value addition is attempted, then people will continue to remain economically poor despite their knowledge richness.
Similar examples were found during the last Shodh Yatra in Champaran, Bihar, Puruliya and Bankura in West Bengal, Koraput in Orissa, Arkuvali, Andhra Pradesh, Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir. Persistence of neglect and unwillingness to engage with minds on the margin seems to be a constant policy refrain. National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme is a good example of such a mind set. More than 250 million people below poverty line are given only menial work for employment. They are not given any mental work. Elsewhere I have discussed in detail how one can generate tremendous knowledge base and network by engaging labourers in mapping diversity, documenting knowledge (cultural, technological, historical, physical resources, skills, etc.) and converting knowledge into enterprises. There is no reason why a civilized society should not provide dignified opportunity for employment in value addition. A successful strategy self destructs (Gupta, 1985). The success of employment programme should be when it is not required at all.
The strategy for unleashing the creative potential of millions of people at the base of economic pyramid can be summarised as
1. The development strategy should build upon the resources in which a region and the people inhabiting that region are rich in,
2. Local knowledge and innovations can provide a signal about the stress and pain points and some of the ways in which these pains have been lessened,
3. Documentation of such knowledge with prior informed consent can provide a basis for blending formal and informal science to develop value added products,
4. It is understood that not every knowledge holder may become or may even like to become an entrepreneur. At the same time many knowledge holders can become entrepreneur or tie up with other entrepreneurs to diffuse their knowledge through commercial or non commercial channels.
5. No society has developed or can ever develop by relying only on private markets for creating positive externalities. Public goods have to be created in the form of open access knowledge based, laboratories, workshops, fab labs, tool rooms, design centres etc. Shortage of such facilities stifles the growth of public spirited science, technology, art and culture.
6. Conversion of ideas, innovations and traditional knowledge into product and services requires funds for product development, testing, demonstrations for user trial, designing, market research, production and distribution. Absence of dedicated funds clearly imply either lack of faith in the genius of creative minds at grassroots or the assumption that such knowledge does not deserve any significant public support.
7. Irony of global diffusion of micro finance matched with global absence of micro venture finance conveys the current state of art with regard to knowledge-based approaches to social development.
8. It is not that only technological creativity deserves support for generating employment opportunities for poor. The cultural knowledge is no less important for similar support to generate income-enhancing opportunities.
9. Creating a horizontal knowledge network among local creative communities is most vital for improving the living conditions immediately within and across the countries. This will require multi language, multi media databases and networks. Examples of several problems having been faced by farmers in India as well as China triggering similar solutions proves the potential that exists for saving civilizational energy in discovering solutions. Honey Bee Network has provided numerous examples where applicable solutions can help Indian farmers and vice versa. In such for sustainable solution there is no north but only south. There is a great need for exchanging knowledge among different communities.
10. Engagement with youth is necessary if future leadership has to be in sync with the contemporary needs and aspirations. However, neither the technology youth nor youth engaged in other streams of studies have been mobilized for benchmarking technological inertia, add value to innovations and solve the persistent problems and practices involving lot of drudgery. The portal techpedia.sristi.org is an attempt to pool more than half a million projects done by students every year without any connectivity or accessibility for small scale entrepreneurs or others.
11. Distributed design and manufacturing with horizontal and near term supply chains have to be conceived to reduce energy use and save cost.
There are lot of other changes required for unleashing the economic potential such as land and water reforms, educational reforms to promote social and economic entrepreneurship from an early stage, reorganizing national social services scheme (NSS) and create national innovation service corpse.
It is a pity the poor people are seeing only as consumers and not as providers of knowledge and ideas. More difficult the living conditions, higher has to be the reliance on knowledge and social networks for survival. There is little else to fall back upon. The colonial legacy of food for menial work unfortunately has been continued in most developing countries. I hope that this dialogue between India and China and the scholars in Europe will trigger a new paradigm of combining the seven e’s, ethics, equity, efficiency, excellence, environment, empathy and education.
Anil K Gupta
