When an able government fails to provide in a timely or responsible fashion, people crib and complain in the hope of corrective action. When the same process plays out in the presence of a corrupt, moth-eaten government, the lack of results only lead to more despondency and nothing is achieved. In fact, we are all worse off.
The latter is true for Pakistan where the narrative is simplified and broken down between two stakeholders – the voiceless victims and the nincompoop government, respectively classified as ‘us’ and ‘them’. We hurl abuses at the nincompoops with restless abandon; we call them inept and useless and we do this without any introspection about our own behavior. Considering the government has never failed to fail ‘us’, it makes one wonder who the nincompoop really is.
Indeed, ‘necessity is the mother of all invention.’ Yet, it is either unknown or an anomaly when people find solutions to problems that are traditionally associated with higher authority.
Why we are unable to create our own energy or mend our own wounds or educate our own children are all pertinent questions better suited to a comprehensive psychosocial study. A more rewarding endeavor, in my opinion, is to study the handful few with empty pockets but rich lives – those who have somehow found the courage to pave their own way in this world; those who will not wait for a miracle from a powerless and penniless government.
In Pakistan, organizations like Acumen Fund help scale businesses with an aim to make a social impact. Through SRE solutions, an organization that develops affordable solar energy solutions, many in Balochistan today have electricity despite their enormous distance from the grid. In Lahore, thousands are free from the ailments of contaminated water through Pharmagen shops that sell clean drinking water at only 1.5 rupees a liter as opposed to popular commercial brands that are roughly thirty times more expensive. The fund has also invested in hydropower in Chitral (where the concept of load shedding now doesn’t exist).
In the evolution of developmental science, amidst hugely ineffective governments that will find ways to embezzle foreign aid and consultant-heavy international organizations that tend to spend more on administration and logistics as opposed to actual people in need, social entrepreneurship is an idea that marries profitability with social impact, which means sustained benefits for all stakeholders. The idea is therefore gaining currency, not just in Pakistan, but across the globe.
Having said that, what sounds attractive in theory, may not be easy in practice. Establishing a business from scratch is clearly not meant for everyone. Beyond an idea and an unusual appetite for risk, starting a business requires immense drive to persevere in the face of obstacles; it requires constant attention at its fragile outset; personal sacrifice without the certainty of a predetermined monthly reward; the enthusiasm to motivate a lean team with access to meager resources; and finally, the ability to adapt to changing circumstances as consumers and the business environment in general evolve. All of the above becomes doubly difficult when an entrepreneur chooses a low-income consumer that is already averse to spending.
All the development sector programs aside, even if we don’t have enough social entrepreneurs on the periphery to take the plunge in a country like Pakistan, we still have plenty of people living at rock bottom, willing to carve out a new life for themselves if given a chance. Bunker Roy, an Indian man who adopted a village in Rajasthan in 1972, has been giving individuals and families that chance ever since then and his model is definitely worth looking into.
Roy founded Barefoot College forty years ago and accepted only the students who had no prior education. It was and is perhaps the only college in the world where one has to be illiterate to get in. At Barefoot College, everyone is considered an education resource, the teacher as well as the student and the literate as well as the illiterate.
“A central belief is that the knowledge, skills and wisdom found in villages should be used for its development before getting skills from the outside. A belief that sophisticated technology should be used in rural India, but it should be in the hands and in control of the poor communities so that they are not dependent or exploited.”
The Barefoot College works in many areas but their greatest achievement, that truly captures the aforementioned policy, is their Solar Electrification project. The college recruits illiterate women across a variety of low income countries and cultures and in six months trains them in the art of designing solar energy solutions, all through sign language. The solar engineers then return to their respective villages to illuminate their homes and to spread the skill so that others can follow suit. The college has thus far trained 740 women across 64 countries and these engineers have provided solar energy solutions to 450,000 people. The college has also trained illiterate grandmothers to work as dentists, doctors and artisans.
If illiterate individuals can learn a skill beyond hard labor, and do the work of engineers and doctors and dentists, then it’s wrong for us to think that illiteracy alone is holding us back from reshaping Pakistan. If there is a spiritual umbilical cord, connecting us to a careless government, it’s best we disconnect and find our own way. In the end, the message is loud and clear: if we don’t help ourselves, no one will.

 The writer is a communications consultant based in Lahore.

Khizr.imran@gmail.com