In the second week of September we received reports of three trusts. Two were from Tatas — the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust (NRTT) and one from The Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe (ZTFE), Incorporated. They offered significant insights on how trusts of standing — though of different magnitude — can utilize their resources to pursue their charitable, social and cultural objectives.
The SRTT and NRTT along with the Sir Dorab Tata Trust are probably the largest public trusts in the country. In the financial year 2009-2010 the combined disbursals of SRTT and NRTT “touched an all time high of Rs 1.69 billion (US $ 38.52 million),” notes the two trusts’ chairperson, Ratan Tata. His message dated June 9, 2010 prefacing the report notes, “The year 2009-2010 saw India coming to grips with economic growth, on the one hand, coupled with inflation, especially in food grains, as a result of a poor monsoon, on the other. Amidst this scenario, the trusts continued their focus on promoting agricultural dynamism in different parts of the country…
“Taking forward the learning from the success stories of our projects, the trusts are now attempting to replicate these in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, where distress has driven several farmers to suicide. Consequently, the trusts have collaborated with the government of Maharashtra and the International Fund for Agriculture Development to create the ‘Convergence of Agricultural Interventions in Maharashtra Program’ that will reach out to 286,000 households across 1,200 villages, spread over the six distress districts of Vidarbha through end-to-end projects, covering all aspects, ranging from production to availability of credit and development of markets for farmers.”
Similarly the remaining 114 pages of the tastefully presented report are filled with details of how the trusts have cooperated with various government and non-profit organizations to assist largely the poorest of the poor in all spheres and geographic locations. The report tells of how a poor 42-year-old illiterate tribal woman in “the picturesque Araku valley in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh” managed to increase her yield of coffee beans and cut out “the nexus of local traders and middlemen” to sell her produce at a higher price and thereby sustain her family of six.
In the heartland of Punjab, a successful cotton grower with guidance was able to cut down on the use of chemical pesticides thereby reducing his cost of cultivation substantially.
In the Dholpur district of northeastern Rajasthan “a feisty woman belonging to the Scheduled Caste community” managed to raise money to buy two buffaloes, obtained a bank loan to pay off her debts to the local moneylender, convinced Mother Dairy to open a milk collection center in her village and now manages the center.
In education, the trusts have helped facilitate the formation of a postgraduate course for teachers of elementary education. The program, set up “with inputs from experts all over the country,” was accepted and implemented at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
All these success stories are tied up with local non-governmental and governmental agencies which the Tata trusts help with finance, knowledge and skills. The reports give prominence to the partners who managed the projects while characteristically understating the role of Tatas.
These accomplishments reflect the commitment of the industrial house to achieve the objectives, guidelines and philosophy set out by the trusts’ founders. When visualizing the formation of the trusts, Sir Ratan Tata stated in 1913 that they were “for the advancement of education, learning and industry in all its branches, including education in economy, sanitary services and art, or for the relief of human suffering, or for other works of public utility…
“No experiment and no venture should be aided or undertaken unless the scheme thereof is carefully prepared… No institution or organization should be aided of which the accounts are not subject to periodic audits and are not regularly issued and which would not be open to inspection and examination.”
The London based ZTFE, probably amongst the oldest existing Zoroastrian associations outside India, has listed its plans for September 2010 to March 2011. Over 40 different programs were announced ranging from the Fravardigan Parav jashan (remembrance of the dead) to a Bollywood musical evening, both in September alone.
In October the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams was to attend the Jashan-e Mehrgan celebration, “meet the congregation and partake in a gahambar meal.” ZTFE claims the occasion would be “a landmark event…the first ever official visit by the…head of the Worldwide Anglican Communion to a Zoroastrian place of worship.” And two weeks later the launch of a Centre for Iranian Studies at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) was to be held. ZTFE’s sesquicentennial will be celebrated by organizing an international conference on 150 years of Zoroastrian Studies in July 2011.
How do Zoroastrians in the West and many other parts of the world manage to encapsulate so many activities without the assistance of domestic or establishment help to lessen their household duties? With limited paid employees or none at all they organize congresses, raise funds to acquire and build community centers, hold religious classes, plan outings, assist the elderly and so on. The World Zoroastrian Organisation saw a confluence of east and west when in its early days funds from abroad bettered the lot of the Parsi poor in the villages of southern Gujarat.
With such a wealth of talent within the community why do other local trusts not draw on these resource pools to assist in forming a blueprint for the community’s future? Why not a social and cultural audit in addition to the statutory financial verification to assess an anjuman’s or punchayet’s effectiveness in achieving its charitable objectives? Instead of being obsessed with housing and hounding those who marry out and their progeny why not take a leaf from the celebrated role models we have both in this country and abroad and work in Sir Ratan Tata’s words “for the relief of human suffering” rather than its advancement?