By Kris Herbst

Suppose you were directing a drama and needed to cast a character who abruptly abandons her position on the fast track of India's corporate sector to help young people escape the psychological boxes imposed by society. You might overlook Ashraf Patel, age 30, a slight, self-effacing women, but you would be succumbing to a stereotype – one of many she has confronted during her life.

Ashraf Patel (back row, second from right), staff, and students with village women during Fun Camp

Further, it was in this stratum of society that Ashraf most often encountered biases, cultural blocks and arrogance that blocked a view of larger social realities. India's educational system is capable of churning out highly trained students who nonetheless are "maladjusted to the needs of society and the nation," Ashraf said. "They go abroad for further education, and even win Nobel prizes. Those who stay in India huddle together in small pockets, bewildered and disgusted with the realities that they face every day." Pravah helps train future decision makers to "prevent social conflict from taking place" rather than respond to crises in an ineffective, post hoc manner, Ashraf said.

Success Brings Expansion

Having achieved a significant degree of success with urban youths, Pravah is expanding its outreach to low-income youths. It also returning full circle to its origins by launching AND (Aquiring New Dimensions), a program that intends to bridge a gap in understanding between young managers in the corporate sector and their counterparts in the non-profit sector. Projects pursued by managers in both the private and non-profit sectors would benefit from the knowledge and perspectives of their counterparts, Ashraf said.

AND will provide a forum where participants can exchange ideas and examine their stereotypes of each other. It will also give young executives opportunities to learn through exposure to villages and urban slums.

Ashraf was fortunate to grow up in a privileged class and to be encouraged to think for herself. Her father, a civil engineer and a Muslim, and her mother, a former college professor and a Hindu, allowed her to develop her own sense of spirituality.

"The independence and freedom to not follow either of those religions gave me an understanding, when I was very young, that we can move out of the boxes that we have created for ourselves," Ashraf said. Many of the problems we face are caused by "people in different boxes who cannot see beyond their own frames."

Ashraf received a post-graduate degree, specializing in human resource development, from the prestigious Xavier Labour Relations Institute in Jamshedpur, and then worked as a human resources manager for SRF Finance, and most recently Escorts Financial Services Ltd. in New Delhi. She became one of just three women in a group of 30 senior managers. At times she jeopardized her position by challenging policies she thought unjust, like biases against recruiting women or members of certain communities, and limitations on the types of jobs available to women.

The Price of Wisdom

Ashraf found that many of her colleagues, though highly regarded professionals, were close-minded and failed to comprehend her efforts to change the workplace. "A lot of people told me I had made a fool out of myself," she recalls.

In 1992, the tranquility of her honeymoon on an island retreat was shattered by communal rioting back home after Hindu fundamentalists demolished the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. Ashraf returned to Delhi and began working with neighborhood and city organizations to promote religious tolerance.

From this experience, she derived two lessons. First, before you can make headway on a single issue like religious intolerance, you must address more fundamental attitudes about life and humanity. Second, she discovered that among her peers, "you can't work with people who have already arrived – that is, typically, adults who are doing very well for themselves, who have got everything made for them. Now, they don't want to change."

Ashraf found she could work most effectively with adolescents and college students, who were ready to step out from the shadow of their families' influence, but whose attitudes and position in society had not completely set. With three colleagues, Ashraf launched Pravah, which means "flow," during the summer of 1993, offering workshops for high school students.

Success led to word-of-mouth referrals to several other high schools, which now offer the Pravah program called VIDYA (Voluntary Initiative Towards Development of Youth Action). It employees professional development techniques, beginning with a focus on self-actualization, in a three-phase program.

From Wanting Change to Bringing Change

The first phase, called "Let's Get Out of Our Shells," is the critical component, after which "the rest of the program just kind of falls into place," Ashraf said. Exercises help students develop self-confidence and self-esteem, so they can move from a desire to change things (which is not uncommon) to an ability to influence their environment (which is much less common).

In one exercise, students split into two groups with opposing opinions on an issue, for example, "Violence is justified for a good cause." Or they can join a neutral group if they are uncertain about their position. The students are encouraged to examine, clarify, justify, articulate and argue their positions. In an exercise called "Myth Blasting and Breaking Stereotypes," they "get into the other person's Shoes" by understanding and arguing for the other side's opinion.

"I strongly believe that this peer influence is much more significant than the influence that comes out of some kind of power relationship," like parent-child or teacher-child, Ashraf said. "This process produces a positive peer influence that carries the whole group through toward a set of positive values, such as equality, justice, and freedom."

Those holding an extreme position at the outset of a workshop are unlikely to change their point of view, Ashraf said, "but I am really concerned about those guys who are on the fence – who haven't made up their mind, or who made up their mind without thinking or working out their logic. They don't need to join either of the opposing sides, but they are encouraged to move – if just one inch one way or the other. If we can affect those guys, I think we have done a significant job."

Leaving Room for Fun

The second phase, "Together We Move," focuses on social skills, including building team-spirited leadership and respect for others. Following the development of personal strengths and social skills, the third phase, called "We are the World," encourages students to broaden their concerns by examining social issues. In this phase, high school students take field trips to urban organizations, and they can attend seven-day Friendship Udankhatola FUN camps, where workshops are mixed with activities like theater, filmmaking and ecology and heritage walks.

An adult facilitator plays a critical role by throwing out questions to provoke an in-depth debate. "If you see them getting into a box, then you throw another question, which forces them to look at it a little bit more," Ashraf said. But the facilitator must resist the temptation to steer participants toward a set of values or conclusions, so that the students can learn to work things out for themselves.

From College Campus to Village Work

At the college level, Pravah has found it is simpler to work directly with students, independent of the college administration. Students are attracted to Pravah's no-credit college program, SMILE (Students Mobilization Initiative for Learning Through Exposure), by street theater performances on topical issues, followed by a workshop that offers a life skill like problem solving. "We want people to know that working to contribute to society also means doing something for yourself," Ashraf said.

"One student wanted to become an architect, and after having gone through one of these exposure programs he said, 'What I am doing? I just basically want to give up everything and start working in a village.' It was difficult to deal with, because we didn't know if it was one of those instant things: you go through a dramatic experience and you want to change your life the next day." Ultimately, the student elected to complete his studies, and he has been working to develop low-cost housing.

A Sometimes Awkward Intersection

With Pravah's guidance, students choose their experience from some 80 non-profit organizations that Pravah has selected to cover a wide range. Prior to their departure, they participate in briefings and role-playing exercises designed to pre-empt some of the frictions that can occur when students meet and work with rural residents. Pravah also does some advance work with village children to prepare them for the impact of the urban students with "all of their consumerism," Ashraf said.

The adjustment process can be difficult. In a few cases, students have misbehaved in their villages, or treated the experience as a holiday, failing to complete their assignments. In another case, a student was "so disturbed by the experience that she couldn't deal with it," Ashraf said. "She just decided one day that she's not going to wear slippers and is going to sleep on the floor. She wanted to carry that life back into her own context, which actually didn't apply, and created more problems here."

In such cases, Pravah staff members try to help students integrate their experiences into their lives. But in general Ashraf's approach to career choices, for example, is hands off, perhaps offering alternatives while letting the student and family sort things out for themselves.

After three years of relying on a "gut feeling that we were making a difference," based on feedback from students and parents, Pravah needed a more rigorous test of its achievements. It has implemented a standard psychological test for high school students that has measured a 65.7 percent positive change in attitudes towards life and humanity: self-confidence, desire to make a difference, leadership ability, creative problem solving. "When we started the program, we said even if there is a 30 percent change in the first part of the program, well be quite satisfied," Ashraf said. "So for us, this figure is quite significant."

No Quick Fix

Critical questions remain about ongoing support and how to expand the program. Pravah's resources are limited. A staff of six versatile staff members, coming from a broad range of professional backgrounds (psychologist, theater professional, disability specialist), run the office, produce theater programs, do training in the schools.

Pravah has had difficulty finding schools that will allocate money or clear time in a1ready crowded curricula. "They give us very little time, so they don't really get into our scheme of things," Ashraf said. "They want it fast – it's like a quick fix for them."

In some cases, Pravah has avoided expanding to schools that want to change the nature of its program. The very fact that attendance in school programs is compulsory may conflict with the notion of letting students think for themselves, and in some cases schools limit students' creativity or freedom. These factors have led Pravah to focus expansion on voluntary programs outside the high school system.

Working outside the school system offers several other advantages, Ashraf said. It gives Pravah direct access to students' families. "And in a way, it also makes us work harder to keep a certain standard – to be a little professional about it," Ashraf said. "The demands on us will be higher."

Pravah is building support for this approach by creating an independent forum for school social workers, who are invited to share their values, ideals and experiences and to develop programs for urban schools based on the Pravah model.

Pravah's college programs are a mirror of this situation. They are entirely independent of college administrations and are supported with funding from the Indo-German Social Service Society. But Pravah is testing the opposite approach at a college that has made Pravah's SMILE program a part of its regular curriculum.

Seeking Links to Government, Too

Despite some misgivings about taking government funds, Ashraf believes Pravah needs to try involvement with a government-sponsored program at the college level. "When you want to do things differently and you want to be more creative, there is a tendency to stay away from all public programs, because you think they are not as creative, or don't give students that much space," she said. But by doing so, Pravah runs the risk of being isolated and ignored by the networks and partnerships in government circles. Although government resources may come with strings attached, "if we are not tapping them, then I don't think we are using our opportunities effectively."

Pravah is preparing to expand its mission to include a program for low-income youth who do not have access to college but may be enrolled in a diploma program. Pravah is devising an entirely new curriculum for this, aimed at "first-generation learners" whose parents are not schooled.

Pravah plans to expand its programs at the college level by leveraging the experience of high school students who have moved on to college after participating in the VIDYA program. It is tracking these students, and will encourage them to establish their own SMILE programs in their colleges, thereby forging a link between the VIDYA and SMILE programs. "We want to set up SMILE centers in at least 20 colleges in the next three to four years," Ashraf said.

While pursuing an ambitious agenda, Ashraf's role in Pravah is evolving away from being the person in sole charge. "For a long time, I was both the peon and chief executive," she said. "I was handling everything from decisions about what time tea has to come to deciding which programs to implement. Fortunately, I think I am now slowly becoming dispensable."

Pravah's mission has been to help young people make a difference in their own context. "Now we will try to expand that context," Ashraf said. If a student thinks his context is only his neighborhood or college, Pravah will try to expand it, perhaps to the city level. "Our job is to constantly expand that context," Ashraf said. "I think we will have achieved our goal if the youngsters we work with begin to look at the entire world as something we must protect and work for."