Until
Now!
When
I sat down to hit the keyboard to write out the prologue
of the Souvenir of “Two Decades of CUTS”, I found myself
shaking with emotion and nostalgia. A first of its type
of publication, which CUTS is producing to capture bouquets
and few brickbats from many persons who have known us
for a long time. Some of them are very generous and will
encourage us to do more, and better, than what we have
done until now.
One
man show?
For
long, CUTS name has been closely associated with my name,
as indeed many such organisations are. One cannot divorce
the image of the person with the organisation that he
has worked for and built up over twenty years, as its
founder and leader. Thus, many of the messages in this
souvenir do mention me by name, which is but natural and
unavoidable. I seek the reader’s pardon for this constant
mention of my name in most of the messages. But, here
one of my long time comrades-in-arms: R. L. Tiwari has
rightly challenged the bogey of CUTS being a one-man show
(pg 47). He does not believe it is a one-man show.
In
fact, we are now nearly 100 people spread out over six
centres in India and three overseas. For many years, people
did have this valid criticism, because I was the only
permanent employee, with many coming and going for various
reasons. Now, down to the memory lane.
Though
we started in 1984, we began employing staff only from
1988/89 when we had some funding. Until then we relied
upon an excellent set of volunteers, who contributed their
money, time, energy and skills without a penny of remuneration.
Much of our work was litigating on consumer and human
rights issues, where many sympathetic judges too helped.
Much of the court work was done by me myself, though I
was never trained as a lawyer.
Consumer
action: the raison dé être
We
were responsible for getting the new Consumer Protection
Act in 1986, which we used quite actively. We filed the
first complaint before the National Commission, the Rajasthan
and the West Bengal State Commissions, thus ‘inaugurating’
them. We also used the High Courts in Jaipur and Calcutta
by filing a series of public interest cases. Further,
CUTS also filed several cases before the Monopolies &
Restrictive Trade Practices Commission. All this gave
us a huge publicity, and built up our image as intrepid
consumer crusaders.
In
this effort, one person who stands out is Naresh Sahai
Mathur, Advocate, Supreme Court of India, who looked after
most of our litigation work at New Delhi pro bono. He
fought shoulder to shoulder with us, with full support
of his wife Antonella. Another name which stands out is
that of N. P. Jain, Income Tax Advocate of Calcutta who
worked hard in our advocacy work in our initial years,
again pro bono. I owe both of them the most gratitude
in helping establish CUTS.
Many
many friends in the press too helped us a huge amount,
by filing stories in their journals and helping us with
contacts. One person: Umesh Anand, then senior assistant
editor at The Economic Times, too stands out, as
having made me a very popular consumer columnist in the
early 1990s. All that helped CUTS to reach out to a large
number of people throughout the country, and abroad.
In
1991, The New York Times reported about CUTS in
Calcutta: “The power situation is part of the overall
insouciance and utter callousness of the administration,
said Pradeep S. Mehta, founder of the 8-year old Consumer
Unity & Trust Society, a pioneer in consumer-rights
advocacy here and in other Indian cities”.
Diversification
and expansion
Many
people have often asked about our diversification and
expansion both on issues as well as territorially. We
started as a regular consumer protection group and continued
to do so for long.
In
1991, when we asked HIVOS to support some of our rural
consumer work, they did so and we launched the first specialised
centre of CUTS at Chittorgarh in South West Rajasthan,
where I had some vacant ancestral property. Its use was
handed over to CUTS. It was aptly named after my late
grandfather: the Nawal Singh Mehta CUTS Centre for Human
Development. Over time the Centre worked on several issues
of the rural poor, and fine tuned its focus on women,
as the more deprived section of the society. This led
to expansion of many new areas, including working with
children as well.
In
the same year, 1991, I attended the 13th World
Congress of the International Organisation of Consumer
Unions (now Consumers International) when I was exposed
to international trade issues which were being negotiated
under aegis of the GATT, and more popularly known as the
Uruguay Round (UR). In fact I reported for The Economic
Times in India from the Congress and thus gained a
better insight into what was happening. However, most
of the issues relating to the UR were dominated by northern
consumer organisations, while those of us from the South
just gaped in awe at the length and breadth of the issues.
This
led to a beginning of our work on WTO issues, with the
first achievement being the launch of the South Asia Watch
on Trade, Economics & Environment in 1994. Subsequently
SAWTEE was moved to Kathmandu with an independent secretariat,
while CUTS launched its second specialised centre in 1996:
CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment
with Professor Jagdish Bhagwati of Columbia University
as the chairman of its first advisory board.
At
the same time, through various interactions with African
groups, especially during the UNCTAD IX at Midrand, South
Africa, the Africa Resource Centre was conceived as a
resource centre to promote South-South Civil Society cooperation.
Thus the third centre was established in 2000 in Lusaka.
That was also our first step outside India.
In
the meanwhile, the head office of CUTS returned to Jaipur
in 1997, when it was decided to shift CITEE to Jaipur
as well. The Calcutta office then became the CUTS Centre
for Sustainable Consumption & Production, to consolidate
our work in the area of ecolabelling and environmentally
friendly technologies.
Over
time, the Nairobi Centre was conceived to promote work
in East Africa, and that Nairobi was the gateway to Africa,
as most of the international organisations were located
there; mainly United Nations Environment Programme. It
was then decided that the Lusaka centre will focus and
expand its activities in Southern Africa.
In
the meanwhile, deepening engagement with Northern civil
society groups led to the establishment of the London
Resource Centre to promote better South-North dialogue.
On conclusion of the mammoth project on competition regimes
of seven developing countries, popularly called 7-Up,
in January/February, 2003, the CITEE was split into two.
A new Centre on Competition, Investment and Economic Regulation
was set up to pursue dream projects on competition and
regulation. Professor Frederic Jenny of France is the
first chairman of its advisory committee.
No
impact without professionalism
All
this huge expansion took place on the basis of demands
from our constituencies. Handling such a huge agenda was
not possible without professionalisation. Going back to
history, there were countless people, who continued to
help CUTS by believing in our cause and volunteering their
time without any remuneration. For reasons of space, it
is not possible to name them all.
I
too remained a volunteer until 1990, when I gave up a
lucrative business career to devote myself fully to CUTS.
I realised that it is not possible to create any impact
unless one is professional. Following that decision, we
started raising money and hiring staff to run programmes.
But
it was a very difficult task, because one had to go to
donors with hardly any track record but just the desire,
passion and ideas. One did not even have any patrons,
so we started small as our financial graph will
show. Our executive committee members were normal people,
none were great names, which often sells an organisation
faster. Fund raising was also quite humiliating dealing
with the arrogant staff of donors, who revelled in their
power seeing us grovel for money.
Foreign
funding, and its problems
Anyway,
we succeeded with some donors (and their compassionate
and professional staff), who thought that our plans were
good and we will be able to deliver the goods. But it
was often a chicken-and-egg situation. We did not have
enough money to pay well, and we could hire just anybody
at low salaries. Thus they did not work well, or could
not express their achievements well. So donors would find
faults with our work which skewed future funding.
In
a situation, one particular donor staff member spoke negatively
to another and I had to fight dourly to convince them
to support us. Finally, we succeeded. Thank god, it was
not a government agency, which would have otherwise got
stuck with a negative reference and our fate would have
been sealed.
But
relying on foreign funding is the bane of all NGOs in
developing countries, and often many feel that we will
then sing their tune. For example, writes Bharat Jhunjhunwala
(pg 65), a respected economic commentator: “One of the
most crucial challenges that CUTS will face in future,
is to be relevant and not be classified as an extension
of foreign donors”.
The
empire strikes
This
comment by Bharat is something that we faced in dealing
with a bureaucrat in New Delhi. Because we had a different
view on a subject than that of the Government of India,
he went to the extent of vilifying us in official files
that because of a particular grant, we hold and advocate
a different view. He is a myopic uncivil servant, who
believes that he knows best and that any dissenting views
coming from an Indian NGO should not exist at all. There
is something perversely Brahminical in all this. We continue
to face problems with the particular ministry, though
most of their other civil servants do not hold the same
harsh view. We do hope that over time people will see
some sense and reflect that diversity of views is what
enriches the intellectual space in this civil world.
In
principle, I do not find it objectionable to take assistance
from foreign donors; after all there is a genuine desire
of rich governments to assist the developing country governments
and their civil society to help make the world a better
place to live in. Indeed, one should be careful of maintaining
independence. In one case, we wished good bye to a particular
donor, when we felt that our independence is likely to
be compromised.
In
India, charity is quite large, but people donate for religious
or educational or relief efforts. They do not appreciate
that efforts for better governance can yield very good
fundamental results. Further, the issue of overseas development
assistance has been on the international agenda for a
long time, as a bone of contention. Commitments made by
the rich countries to fork out 0.7% of their GNP as ODA
has never been met, and the South makes it an issue at
every international meeting. But that is not the issue,
which I am addressing here.
Gita,
my guide
Money
is something that everyone needs, but for the first 6-7
years of CUTS, I worked as a volunteer. I did not draw
any salary (unlike many of my colleagues in the NGO sector)
for a long time and depended upon my family business.
This too was not a happy thing, as they would curse me
for blowing up the hard earned money. Indranil Banerjie,
then with India Today and a close friend, is a
witness to this period of mine and CUTS life (pg 67).
He writes: “Pradeep had to plough the lonely furrow. Virtually
all of CUTS funds in those years came from his business
earnings. Where he did succeed was in his ability to rope
in other people to work as volunteers. Over the years,
he has perhaps replicated this on a much larger scale”.
If I had not devoted my life, skills and energy, CUTS
would not have travelled so far. The same applies to many
similar successful NGOs, such as the Centre for Science
and Environment, New Delhi. However, when we started raising
money successfully and achieved a reasonable size, then
my family started recognising the worth, and hence my
total involvement with CUTS. My wife, Aruna, stood by
me all the way, in spite of our quarrels and perennial
shortage of money. My mission was important to me and
her, and she firmly believed in it.
The
motive behind doing this, was that people who can work
for the society, should do, and it is the society, which
has made me what I am. Secondly, I come from a reasonably
well-off family and in the worst situation would never
have suffered penury. Therefore it was my duty to work
for the society as a public citizen and to make the world
a better place to live in.
“Pradeep
recognised that the democratic system of government places
obligations on all citizens to contribute in diverse ways
to strengthen the working of the system to optimise welfare
of the people: it cannot all be left to the government
or the state…. This we all assume but some people like
Pradeep, who work as pro bono publico redeem this
duty” wrote Jagat S. Mehta, former Foreign Secretary of
India, in his message to this souvenir (pg 8).
Often
things used to get skewed, because in consumer activism,
one makes enemies. In action, one also has to face physical
threats, lures and other influences. That too was another
painful and delightful experience, a sort of acid test
of one’s character. In doing this, the holy Indian text:
Gita has been my mentor and guide. The central message
of Gita is selfless action without fear, and that death
is not the end of one’s journey. As a result, we either
had a success or a non-success, but no failures. That
helped me tremendously in doing what I have been doing
since the last twenty years at CUTS. This point is reflected
in most of the messages that we have reproduced here.
Recognition
from persons in high places
The
most encouraging message has come from the Honourable
Vice President of India: Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat,
one of the most popular and capable politicians in Rajasthan.
In fact, he was a part of the first ever campaign that
CUTS launched when it was formed. CUTS was registered
on 11 June, 1984, and a Campaign on Coin Shortage was
launched on 18 June, 1984. He was one of the 44 legislators
who signed onto a memo to the Reserve Bank of India. The
problem was soon resolved.
Ever
since then, whether as a Leader of Opposition or Chief
Minister of Rajasthan, he has been keeping track of our
activities and calling on us to provide him assistance.
Like
many others, he too is an admirer of our wall newspaper:
Gram Gadar, which also celebrated its 20th
anniversary last year. This newspaper is the progenitor
of CUTS. “CUTS is one of the very few consumer organisations
in the country working from the grass roots to international
level”, says Shekhawat in his message (pg 1).
Echoing
Shekhawat, former Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Shri Ashok
Gehlot (pg 4), states: “A journey of two decades by any
organisation, symbolises its work and the public support
achieved by it”.
Indeed,
we have travelled a huge amount, working incessantly on
issues, which relate to the common man and what affects
him at the national, regional and international levels.
Over the next twenty plus years, we hope to consolidate
our work and travel further. Our dream is to become a
global standard institution.
Our
dream will come true. As UNCTAD Secretary General, Rubens
Ricupero (pg 2) writes: “UNCTAD’s longstanding relations
with CUTS are for me a great source of satisfaction. Indeed,
the international community has much to gain from the
interaction between civil society and multilateral institutions”.
One
of the three leading intellectual centres in India on
international trade
Wishing
us another equally glorious 20 years, writes Jagdish Bhagwati
(pg 10), the noted trade economist: “CUTS has developed
from a modest NGO, addressing mainly domestic issues,
to a pre-eminent position as an international NGO, dealing
with issues relating to the world trading system and related
issues”.
Compliments
Muchkund Dubey (pg 13), another former Foreign Secretary
of India: “CUTS has emerged as one of the three leading
intellectual centres of the country on international trade
issues, the other two being …ICRIER and RIS. CUTS, however,
has its own distinctive profile by virtue of being basically
a civil society organisation. CUTS is able to use the
civil society for getting inputs from the micro-level
as well as a forum for disseminating its output. This
has enabled CUTS to carve out a special niche in the areas
of advocacy, training and networking”.
“CUTS
has impressed me in terms of its ability to bid for work
and deliver a professional output within budget and on
time. The output of CUTS (briefing papers, newsletters,
studies, training) is prolific. CUTS is unusual as a southern
NGO, in its ability to work across continents, thereby
building capacity of research and advocacy institutions
in other developing countries”, asserts John Burton of
DFID, UK. This piece of work led to much greater support
from DFID, and has helped us to take a quantum leap in
the year 2000.
Why
did DFID support CUTS, is reflected by another European
government representative, “The characteristics that make
CUTS interesting in my view are its constructive and well-reasoned
approaches to analyses of development topics and trade-related
issues” adds Anders Ahnlid, Deputy Director General (Trade)
of the Swedish Foreign Ministry (pg 18).
Liberalisation
yes, but with safety nets
It
is not only analysis, but transferring the knowledge to
others, so that they too become equally good advocates
of public interest, has been a major activity. We have
created many new NGOs at the grass roots in Asia and Africa
and built capacity of several to deal with issues independently.
Many of the messages carry this information. One comment
gladdens my heart tremendously.
“The
programmes organised by CUTS are certainly a ‘cut above
the rest’. Whereas other organisations gave me education,
CUTS gave me the training; other organisations gave me
knowledge, CUTS gave me the wisdom”, says Surendra Kanstiya,
former Chairman, Consumer Guidance Society of India, Bombay
(pg 39). Surendra too believes in our approach to liberalisation
and globalisation, processes which need to be managed
and not shunned. That’s what has impressed many.
“What
is particularly interesting about CUTS is its approach
to liberalisation, which perhaps can best be captured
in what appears to be its motto: “Liberalisation yes,
but with safety nets”, says Karl Sauvant, Director, Division
for Investment, Technology and Enterprise, UNCTAD, Geneva
(pg 21).
In
terms of future challenges, which will be covered more
extensively in the last chapter: “Miles to Go…”, being
written by my young and dynamic colleague: Bipul Chatterjee,
let me just sample a few quotes from friends who have
worked closely with us over the last decade or more.
Most
remarkable feature
Allan
Asher of Consumers Association, UK feels: “The most remarkable
feature of the growth and effectiveness of CUTS is the
way in which it has brought a developing country perspective to
its work. But, a key challenge for the future is the task
of growing large and international gracefully. CUTS needs
to find ways of working with other NGO’s (especially international
ones) in ways, which carry the development agenda ahead.
It must avoid the risks of friction and dissipation
of energy through failing to recognise the needs and roles
of other groups”.
Adds
his colleague and another dear friend, Phil Evans: “I
think the key challenge in strengthening research and
advocacy is thus much more an issue of recognising the
emerging nature of CUTS as the centre of a network, rather
than just another NGO working on trade/competition/environment
etc”.
Working
with policy institutions
However,
R. Sudarshan of UNDP, Oslo, who was one of the first funders
of CUTS, while he was at The Ford Foundation in New Delhi,
adds: “The issues related to globalisation and the WTO
are very complex and sophisticated. If CUTS is to be a
key actor then it should develop some strong research
relationships with universities and policy think tanks”.
In
fact, we have one of the most formidable and growing list
of policy think tanks and universities as our partners
across the world. To name a few: University of Sussex,
The World Institute of World Economics, Kiel, Germany
abroad; and in India: Jawaharlal Nehru University and
Delhi School of Economics. In terms of research institutions,
a wide array exists around the world, including National
Council of Applied Economic Research in India, with whom
we have many joint projects.
Political
buy-in, the future challenge
Getting
a better political buy in for some of our ideas, has come
across from some. In 2001, we have already launched an
active contact programme with parliamentarians at Delhi.
This was somewhat similar to a programme with legislators
in Jaipur, which we had been doing since 1998. We certainly
need to accelerate this work. For these reasons, we now
have a national advocacy office in New Delhi.
“As
far as future challenges are concerned, CUTS could try
for more active involvement with the whole class of political
executives to inform them of the developments in the world
economy with only one slogan in mind: Good Economics is
Good Politics”, writes Ajay Kumar of Tata Sons Ltd., Bombay
(pg 68), who as a journalist has known CUTS for quite
some time.
The
last word to Professor Frederic Jenny of Conseil de la
Concurrence, Paris: “In the ultimate analysis, CUTS must
get the ear of the politicians to foster competition policy.
It is listened to but not obeyed by policy makers. Indeed,
CUTS has done well to push for competition policy with
consumer organisations and competition authorities, but
this is not sufficient. It has to think of new strategies
to get the political elite involved”.
Our
work vertically, begins at the grassroots, transits to
national and regional, and ends at international levels.
More about it on the last pages. (see About CUTS).
In
this souvenir, we have carried mainly messages from people,
who have known and interacted with us for a long time.
We could not get all such people to write, and hope they
will respond after seeing this publication.
I
would like to thank all those who have given their contribution,
which is very valuable, and will guide us in our future
endeavours to make this world a better place to live in.
Pradeep
S Mehta
Secretary
General |
