New Delhi, February 15, 2017: Saurav Ghosh has been recognised for his work in the social sector by Ashoka. On 11 February, he also called on the President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, who felicitated all the newly inducted Ashoka Fellows.
Speaking on the occasion, the President said that India is a diverse country and this diversity is its strength and needs to be celebrated. He said he was happy to meet Social Innovators from Ashoka working in diverse areas who have the common aim of being agents of change in different societal activities. He said that Ashoka has over the last 35 years of its establishment, mentored and supported over 3000 Ashoka Fellows in 82 countries including over 380 fellows from India. He said that it was striking that the Social Innovators not only solved problems through innovative ideas but inspired others to be change makers themselves and create positive social change.
SwaNigamit Panchayats
Saurav Ghosh has been chosen by Ashoka for his work in bridging the disconnect between the two levels of governance – the national government that decides policies and sanctions schemes, and the Panchayat level, the lowest rung of governance. His idea of SwaNigamit Panchayat is to simply unlock the value creation process at Panchayat level and create financial resources through which it can take care of its administrative needs to run like an office, hire resources and consultant and better address local needs by aligning them to Government schemes to provide solutions to the community it represents as the last level of Governance.
Panchayat was empowered / strengthened under 73rd Amendment of the Indian Constitution to give the world one of the best models for democratic governance systems. The Constitution has given immense powers and responsibility to the Panchayat and through it to the villagers so that they can look for self-development. The problem is ‘they’ don’t know! A myopic vision due to lack of information, ignorance and interest has kept the Panchayats from realizing their true potential. There is less than 40% utilisation of funds under Government’s various schemes.
“Everything is written but implementation is nobody’s baby. The idea of building up a SwaNigamit Panchayat is to unlock the hidden entrepreneur in the Panchayat and assist the body to develop its own revenue through which it can take care of staffing and administrative needs. For one Sarpanch/Mukhiya cannot be executive officer, finance officer, technology officer and administrative officer,” explains Saurav.
The creation of SwaNigamit Panchayats help remedy lack of meaningful employment at community level. This lowers rate of distress migration and creation of urban slums and stress on urban infrastructure.The challenge before Saurav now is to scale up this work to cover all 2,38,000 Panchayats in India.
Saurav Ghosh: Background
Saurav Ghosh Co-Founded Community Friendly Movement (CFM) in 2005. Here he has been responsible for driving grassroots project in areas of agriculture (input cost reduction models, agriculture water management, federating farmers in producer organization format) and rural infrastructure (drinking water – mitigation of Fluoride and Arsenic and Sanitation- ferroconcrete toilets). Ongoing projects of CFM are in MP, Gujarat, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand. Please read more about our work on www.cfmglobal.org
Saurav represented CFM in 60th year UN celebration at World Bank HQ in Washington D.C. CFM was selected as one of the four projects from across the globe by young entrepreneurs for showcasing during the event. He was also selected as Young Entrepreneur for Youth Social Enterprise Initiative (YSEI) and received a grant of USD 15,000.
Ashoka: Background
Ashoka is the one of the largest networks of social entrepreneurs worldwide, with over 3,000 Ashoka Fellows in 70 countries creating large-scale impact through new innovations. Founded by Bill Drayton in 1980, Ashoka is an international network that is driving the social sector and offering a platform for people dedicated to changing the world. Ashoka pioneered the field of social entrepreneurship and has built multi-level stakeholders across the world who increasingly look to entrepreneurial talent and new ideas to solve social problems.
In India, Ashoka has a vibrant fellowship of over 350 fellows and elects a new cohort of Fellows every year. These include Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi, Magsaysay Award Winner Anshu Gupta, Founder of Sulabh International Bindeshwar Pathak, Activist and Lawyer Flavia Agnes and many more.
Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)
