Nexus of Good: Rewarding the performers

It was just past noon when the plane landed at Lucknow. The year was 2016 and I had recently taken over as Secretary, School Education and Literacy, Government of India. It was an official visit to the state of Uttar Pradesh. I was scheduled to proceed to the state Guest House as all the official business was after lunch. However, I chose to take an unscheduled detour (I had come to understand that such visits gave me a feel of the ground reality) to visit a government primary school. When I reached the school, it was lunch break and the mid-day-meal was being served. When I introduced myself to the teacher, she looked at me incredulously. She couldn't believe that the Secretary, Government of India had come to the school, unannounced. She soon regained her composure and offered me the mid-day-meal that was being served. Despite a short stint so far in the sector, I had heard horrid stories about the quality of such meals. Hence, I wanted to get a taste of it myself. When I tasted the food, I could not believe that such delicious food could be served as part of the mid-day-meal. I jokingly told my wife, who was accompanying me, that even she didn't cook as delicious a meal. I inquired from the teacher about the source of this food. She said that it was being provided by Akshay Patra. My ignorance about the organisation was writ large on my face. The teacher was perceptive. She immediately gauged it and gave me a brief explanation about the organisation that served this food.

When I reached the state headquarters, I ascertained more details about Akshay Patra that was partnering with the state in two districts to serve food in schools. Grains and some amount, as was admissible under the mid-day-meal scheme of the Government of India, were provided by the government. Akshay Patra added some more ingredients and provided cooked food from central kitchens set up by them. I invited the state head of Akshay Patra for a discussion later in the afternoon. After complimenting him and the organisation for the wonderful contribution they were making, I asked him why this good work was being limited to only two of the 80 districts of the state. He thanked me for the compliment but stated that the decision to extend the facility to other districts would be taken by the head-office that was at Bangalore.

Impressed with what I had seen, and in order to explore the possibility of how this 'good' could be scaled, I flew to Bangalore within the next week. The visit to The ISKCON temple at Bangalore that was also the headquarters of Akshay Patra was a rewarding one. I got a better understanding of the organisation and its activities. I also discussed how the activities could be scaled, how a 'nexus' could be built up between the state governments and Akshay Patra to scale their expertise in providing quality food to children by way of the mid-day-meal. Thereafter, I ceased to be just the Secretary, Government of India, and became the principal facilitator to bring about the scaling of such good practices. It was from experiences like these that the 'Nexus of Good' movement was well and truly born!

To begin with, there was just a Twitter handle by this name but thereafter it has evolved as a movement to bring together people to identify, understand, appreciate, replicate and scale good work that is being done in society as a whole. The idea is to provide an alternative narrative to the negativity that is becoming all-pervasive in the social media and other media of communication. Such negativity is impacting the thoughts and actions of a large number of people, especially the young minds. Nexus of Good is now a non-profit society conducting webinars, seminars and road-shows, and promoting good work. It has city chapters in a number of cities doing the same locally.

There is no doubt that a lot of good work is happening around us but, unfortunately, on account of the all-pervasive negativity, it gets lost. The 'premium' on good work seems to have been lost in the high decibel din used for promoting negativity. I am reminded of WB Yeats' words: The best lack conviction, and the worst are full of passionate intensity.

The 'good' are struggling for recognition and a number of them are fighting their battles against a much more organised set of 'negativity mongers' all alone. Can the good work in tandem? Should the good work in tandem? Is it possible to convey the benefits of positive thinking and good work?

The idea was not to discuss ideas. The objective was to ideate from a practice that has worked on the ground. The aim was not merely to appreciate this good work, which indeed was the commendable initial step; it was to explore the potential of replicating and scaling this practice. It was also essential to foster public-private partnership because the understanding was that quality usually comes from the private domain and scale from public.

There are also a large number of faceless individuals, like those at Akshay Patra, around. They are putting their heart and soul into making things happen in collaboration with state governments and their agencies. We need to locate them, understand and appreciate what they have done and how they have done it and then attempt to replicate and scale these practices. That is what Nexus of Good is all about. The movement has already got going with hundreds of positive stories on the portal www.nexusofgood.org.in, most of which are set to be replicated and scaled. The time has now come to reward some of those that are doing or have done exceptionally well and their work has either already been replicated and scaled or has such potential. Nexus of Good Foundation has partnered with FICCI Arise for giving away awards to performers on the 27th of August this year. This recognition will help the tribe of performers grow and strengthen the Nexus of Good movement.

Views expressed are personal