Case
Teaching Notes
Supplementary Resources
Abstract
Several volunteer projects have been designed and put to use in developing countries in an attempt to narrow the rural-urban divide. In most, people from developed economies worked in developing countries on projects typically designed to improve health and educational facilities. While these initiatives received some degree of success in homogeneous countries for example, in Africa and Latin America, they were of limited use in a heterogeneous country like India with its multiple cultures and multiple languages. It became clear that it would be better for India to use its own citizens for volunteer work in rural communities. India’s largest Public Sector Bank, the State Bank of India (SBI) therefore initiated a rural fellowship program called SBI Youth for India (YFI) in 2010 to encourage the educated young to contribute to bridging the rural-urban divide. As opposed to other volunteer models, YFI had the potential to be readily replicated as it was resource-thin yet impact-heavy. This case study describes the conceptualisation and implementation of YFI and the challenges it faced in its initial years. The challenge for students is how to scale up the program more widely in India and for other developing countries to take note and replicate.
This case was prepared for inclusion in SAGE Business Cases primarily as a basis for classroom discussion or self-study, and is not meant to illustrate either effective or ineffective management styles. Nothing herein shall be deemed to be an endorsement of any kind. This case is for scholarly, educational, or personal use only within your university, and cannot be forwarded outside the university or used for other commercial purposes.
2023 Sage Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Resources
Exhibit 1A: Experiences of American Peace Corps Volunteers:
Jonathan Halpern (Served in Kazakhstan – August 2010 to December 2011)
Jonathan was teaching English full time as a Peace Corps volunteer, in a small village school for the deaf in Kazakhstan. While he enjoyed working with these differently abled students, he was quite upset that about 1 and half year into his service, his volunteership was abruptly terminated, citing political and safety issues. It had a serious emotional impact on the students and Jonathan was feeling extremely guilty for leaving them so abruptly. “A little more planning on the part of the administrators would have helped avoiding such a situation”.
Wendy Lee (Served in Cameroon – June 2008–July 2010)
Wendy Lee, a first generation Chinese American, joined American Peace Corps as an opportunity as a great resume builder. She worked in a remote village in Cameroon to work with under-privileged children. Very soon she realised that she had to compromise to live at an income equal to that of locals and live in similar conditions with shoddy electricity and no running water. As per Wendy, Peace Corps is less of a development organisation, and more of a training ground for cultural sensitivity, building understanding, trust and empathy. And she felt this was the biggest benefit that she could derive from volunteering for the American Peace Corps.
Chance Dorland (Served in Columbia – October 2011–March 2013)
Experience of Dorland was not very pleasant with American Peace Corps. One and half year into his service, at Barranquilla, Columbia he fell sick due to inadequate and unprofessional medical care provided by the Peace Corps. He feels that unless Peace Corps provides proper care to its volunteers, they can’t give their best to the locals where they are deployed.
Hayley White (Served in Uganda – June 2009–April 2012)
Hayley White has a great story to tell. She had encountered a great Ugandan, Mr. Benjamin, who had wonderful business ideas to uplift his community. The entrepreneurial qualities of Ugandans surprised Hayley. She got motivated to help them in spite of living among a huge army of cockroaches and elephants. With Benjamin’s help, she could create initiatives, to provide income to the locals from honey, wax and eco-tourism activities for adventurers. She believed that her service was effective primarily because she remained a collaborator and the ideas originated from the locals themselves. Though the community economic empowerment achieved by her was more intangible, Hayley feels that the cultural humility and the wide lens perspective she gained while serving in Uganda, has changed everything in her life, making her a much better and caring individual.
Penny Gage (Served in Nicaragua: January 2009–April 2011)
Penny worked as a healthcare volunteer in Nicaragua, and had a horrifying experience of her 3 fellow female volunteers becoming victims of major sexual assaults. She felt the response of Peace Corps administration was highly inadequate. Notwithstanding this, Penny felt that she could contribute well to the community which was otherwise living in the conditions of utter poverty. She was very grateful to the Peace Corps and felt empowered after returning to America. Her greatest motivation was if she could achieve so well, in the second poorest country of the world, as a single female, she could tackle any challenge in a country of opportunities like US.
Jonathan Hanna & Stephaine (Served in Grenada: February 2010–March 2013)
Jonathan served in Peace Corps along with his wife Stephaine in Grenada for three years. Immediately on reporting to a village school, he found a stack of 10 brand new unopened PCs gifted by World Bank as no one with knowledge of computers was available. Since Jonathan was good in computers, he installed the PCs and trained 200 disadvantaged primary school kids on using them. He feels that it was the most gratifying and rewarding job. Stephaine designed a programme to train general education teachers to work on students with special needs and the programme was replicated among all schools in Grenada. They even extended their stay for an extra year to understand the culture better.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/25/world/peace-corps-stories.html
Exhibit 1B: Volunteer Organizations
A Broader View Volunteers (ABV)
ABV was founded in 2007 in Pennsylvania. It is a volunteer programme to stay and work alongside local people in 25 countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. This scheme focusses on healthcare, education, hygiene and environment related challenges being faced by the locals in these countries. Volunteers of ABV have been contributing in classroom activities, harvesting and even reading stories to kindergarten students. They have also participated in the community outreach programmes, provided vaccinations, and educated about HIV/AIDS and distributed medicine, food and solar lamps.
Mercy Volunteer Corps (MVC)
MVC was founded in 1978, by a regional community of Sister of Mercy, to take care of the needs of economically backward persons all across the USA. MVC later expanded its operations into international space and focussed on South and Central America. Guyana is their selected location for most of their projects.
WorldTeach
WorldTeach invites volunteer teachers to work in far flung locations like Namibia and other African countries. The focus is mainly in the area of education and is exclusive for teachers willing to serve in difficult areas.
Points of Light
Formed in 1990 by President Bush, Points of Light is a volunteer organisation and handles several volunteer programs which include HandsOn Network with about 250 Volunteer action centers, GenerationsOn which works with schools, communities of families and children, Community Blueprint which works for veterans and military families, Billion + Change which works with industries to pledge resources in skill building volunteer services, etc. A “Daily Point of Light Award” was also instituted in 1989 to recognize ordinary Americans from all walks of life taking direct and purposeful voluntary action in their communities to solve serious social problems. However, this program is government funded and is localised to the United States of America.
European Models
European Voluntary Service (EVS)
This is an initiative sponsored by the European Union for the citizens of European countries. Assignments allocated to the volunteers are generally to other European countries. It uses volunteers between 18 to 30 years of age and works in the area of social care for the elderly, sports, environmental protection, culture, art and rural development. The fellowship is limited to cover travel expenses and the cost of food and accommodation. Though initially started for serving exclusively for EU countries, they have subsequently expanded outside the EU. EVS is a part of the EU Youth in Action Programme, initiated as an instrument of supporting projects in the field of non-formal education, intercultural learning, solidarity and international mobility. Volunteers are provided with a youthpass certificate giving the details of services provided by the volunteers. EVS is flexible regarding the period of volunteering and it varies from 2 weeks to 12 months. Exhibit 2 list the experiences of a few volunteers who had worked in EVS.
An Australian Model
Palms Australia
Palms Australia also works on the similar lines as American Peace Corps and volunteer services and places skilled volunteers in remote communities across the world. Setup in 1961, and running successfully for the last 5 decades, Palms Australia specializes in assisting organisations and individuals across a diverse range of cross cultural work. It is a semi-commercial organisation, which undertakes overseas group trip, training and consultancy services along with overseas volunteering.
Exhibit 2: Experiences of European Volunteer Services Volunteers
| Laura Dell’Omo After my EVS in Debrecen I didn’t feel the same person, indeed after two years I am still here in Hungary working and enjoying this beautiful place. | Sefty Harida Fitriyani Thanks to this website I’ve found my EVS opportunity! I have spent three months in France, having an unforgettable time. Suggested to all want to try EVS. |
| Francesco Lo Lacono Thanks to the EVS I’ve improved a lot my skills in communication thanks to a programme by Associazone Joint. Now I can easily work with different tools. | Malva Vercout When I left for my EVS I didn’t know yet how important it would be to me. After two months in Indonesia, everything changed for me. Thanks IDC. |
| Anita De Silva Margues Thanks to EVS.org I had a chance to spend one beautiful day in Italy, in Passignano. Strongly recommended for all the future volunteers. | |
Source: https://europevoluntaryservice.org/customer-testimonials/
Exhibit 3
| Differences Between American Peace Corps and SBI YFI | ||
| S. No | American Peace Corps | SBI YFI |
| 1 | Target population for volunteers are 18 years and above; they need not have any past employment history. | Target population for volunteers are already employed young people coming on sabbatical. |
| 2 | Motivation for joining is to get credits for social service for securing employment when they return. | Motivation for joining is the passion and commitment of volunteering. |
| 3 | Deployment of volunteers is outside the home country. | Deployment is within the home country. |
| 4 | Mandate includes, apart from helping local population, to promote the American brand image. | Mandate is only to help the local Indian population. |
| 5 | Tenure of volunteering is 2 years | Tenure of volunteering is 13 months |
| 6 | Has been in existence for 56 years. | Is in its fourth year of operation presently. |
| 7 | Was started as a national programme by the US President John F Kennedy. | This is an initiative of much smaller scale by the largest public sector bank in India. |
Exhibit 4: Brief Details of Initial Three NGO Partners
MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai: Established in 1988 as a not-for-profit trust, with proceeds from the First World Food Prize that the founder received in 1987. The Foundation aims to accelerate the use of modern science for agricultural and rural development for development and dissemination of technology to improve lives and livelihoods of tribal and rural communities.
BAIF Development Research Foundation, Pune: Established in 1967, BAIF promotes sustainable livelihood in rural India through climate-resilient agriculture, management of natural resources, livestock development, watershed development and agri-horti-foresty as the major income generation activities.
Seva Mandir, Udaipur: Established in 1966, Seva Mandir works across 700 villages in an area where the majority rely on subsistence agriculture. It aims to build stronger communities by focusing on governance, health, education, sustainable use of natural resources, women’s empowerment, youth development, child care and social enterprise.
Source: Respective websites – www.mssrf.org, www.baif.org.in, www.sevamandir.org
Exhibit 5: Example of Cases Used in the Selection Process
SBI YFI Fellow Dharamvir is getting to know his location better. He has read in local publications that the staple diet for the villagers in the area used to be mostly millets like maize, barley, jowar, bajra and red rice. While speaking to a local doctor he finds out that there are a lot of reported cases of anaemia due to low haemoglobin levels in the blood, in the area. He comes to know from a senior government officer that one of the most successful and mass adopted government schemes in the area in the last decade, is the subsidy on wheat. Dharamvir figures out the cause of the nutrition issue. Can you? What do you think should be done to handle the nutrition issue?
In a remote location in Vishakhapatnam district, there lives a tribal community with whom SBI YFI Fellow Smriti wants to work. Trying to find out more about this tribe, Smriti speaks to a local government officer who tells her that the government intends to improve their quality of life and for this purpose clothes have been distributed to these tribals. As Smriti continues with her work, she interacts more closely with the tribals and slowly gets to know more about the habits and customs of a community, otherwise closed to outsiders. She learns that the tribals wear no clothes or very minimal clothes – it’s their tradition, inter-linked with spiritual and religious beliefs. What would your stance be if you were in Smriti’s position and why?
Source: Company documents
Exhibit 6: Activity Flowchart to Be Followed by an YFI Fellow
Week 1: Orientation, introductory perspective and overview of rural development.
Week 2: Training by the partner NGO. Interaction with domain mentor, who has worked in preferred domain of the Fellow and can guide and help him/her in implementing the chosen project.
Week 3–8: Location familiarisation and plan finalisation. Fellows carry out a prescribed list of activities to get a thorough understanding of the issues, ambiguity surrounding any social intervention, break the ice with community and develop perspectives regarding issues in the area.
Months 3–11: Project implementation. Using diverse resources available in the local area to create a lasting impact through project work. The Fellows submit monthly project updates in prescribed formats. Two review workshops were held for Fellows to receive inputs both from partner NGO and the SBI YFI team about the direction of the project.
Months 12 and 13: Complete the project; if required, hand over the reins to identified personnel of the local community. Compile project report.
Source: Company documents
Exhibit 7: Examples of Projects From Second Batch
Traditional Art & Culture:
Promoting tribal Warli art in Jawhar, Thane, Maharashtra
Promoting Bamboo crafts in Ambapada, Dangs, Gujarat
Health:
Providing zero-drainage urinals/toilets for saltpan workers
Awareness about menstrual hygiene and local manufacture of sanitary pads
Women Empowerment:
Setting up of a tailoring enterprise for women
Use of ICT to create awareness about health, food & nutrition among women & children
Environment Protection:
Eco-tourism project in Ahwa, Dangs, Gujarat.
Training locals in the construction of efficient firewood cook stoves (chulhas)
Alternative Energy:
Promoting use of solar water pumps
Setting up of a community-led business for selling solar lights
Rural Livelihoods:
Marketing linkages for millet value added products
Financial literacy of farmers in producer’s organisations
Education:
Health education especially, sex education.
Building capacity of teachers & fostering a creative classroom environment
Source: Company documents
Exhibit 8: Experience of a Few YFI Fellows
Anant Vats
A mechanical engineer with a MBA, Anant calls himself a “serial entrepreneur”. Previously, he had bootstrapped companies in the area of plastic recycling and IT support. During his Fellowship, Anant worked with Bamboo artisans in a tribal area in the western part of India. His stay at the project location and regular interactions with the local artisans made him realize that with the advent of plastics, bamboo craftsmen were restricted to making handicraft items only, which tend to have minimal repeat orders from customers, thereby only providing a livelihood to a very small group of artisans. The market for functional/utility items characterized by high-frequency, low-value transactions had been taken over by cheap plastic products. Anant’s intervention was to create low cost technological tools which reduced drudgery. The result was 10 patentable tool designs that helped artisans to improve their efficiency and quality of products. After the Fellowship, Anant progressed towards expanding the scope of his intervention. With the support of partner NGO BAIF, Anant set up an enterprise engaged in end-to-end sales of functional and eco-friendly Bamboo products (like ball pens, computer peripherals, etc.). By training local artisans to use his low-cost tools and aiding them with design improvements, Anant was able to help them tap the urban markets.
Sunayana Chhatrapathy
With a degree in engineering followed by an MBA, Sunayana was a senior HR manager with well known information technology firm. She worked with tribal children in a remote residential school eastern part of India. She worked to make the learning process enjoyable for the children through innovative and interactive techniques, especially in the areas of Maths, English and Science. Initially, Sunayana’s family, including her husband, had their apprehensions though they supported her in her decision to take up the Fellowship. Later, when Sunayana introduced them to the hundreds of kids who just loved their “didi” (sister), they knew that her heart lay in teaching and were able to appreciate the great impact that she had made on the lives of almost 700 tribal children and the manner in which she had helped the staff of the local schools to acquire computer skills.
Some of the Unpleasant Experiences of the Fellows of YFI:
(Names have been withheld for want of privacy)
A female fellow, belonging to North India near Delhi was deputed to Vynaad in Kerala. She was working through an NGO in tea estates to help children of the estate workers in their education and building values in them. As she became closer to the workers she started interacting with them personally about their living conditions, etc. and they spoke in Hindi (India’s national language). The language spoken in Vynaad was Malayalam (Indian States are divided on the basis of language they speak). Very few people in Vynaad knew Hindi language and when locals saw these people speaking in Hindi, they suspected them to be terrorists and gave a police complaint on the basis of their suspicion. That was election time in Kerala and a red alert was raised by the police. After some investigation though it came out that these people were harmless. Still police advised the YFI fellow to stay indoors till the elections were over and permitted her to get back to her work only after that. The fellow was given an option to relocate to another place but she insisted on continuing there only and she completed her assignment with flying colours.
One fellow from Tamil Nadu (South India) was deployed in the tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh (Central India). This fellow was vegan in his eating habits. While working in the tribal area, he picked up a rare stain of typhoid fever and he became bedridden. There were limited medical facilities in that area and when the local medication did not help he had to be evacuated to his home state for advanced treatment. He took about a month to recover and it gave a valuable lesson to YFI to advise all its fellows to take an extra dose of vaccinations and be careful not to pick up any epidemics from the area they are operating in.
A lady fellow from the state of Andhra Pradesh, was deployed in Maharashtra. She was from an urban background and was freely mixing with the other volunteers of the NGO that they were working with. She was travelling on the pillion of their motorcycles from village to village as a part of their service. One NGO employee who was working with her, misconstrued her closeness and free attitude and assumed that she was interested in him. One day, when they were to proceed to some place, she went into the room to pick up their equipment box. As soon as she entered, she was pulled into the corner by that employee and embraced her and tried to sexually assalt her. The lady pushed him aside with great difficulty and ran outside and a case of sexual harassment was filed against him. After due investigation, necessary action was taken against that person and she was also shifted to a different place where she completed her fellowship successfully and returned. This gave a valuable input that the female fellows are to be advised that their urban like behaviour in rural areas can be misunderstood and they should behave in a more conservative manner.
Several volunteers had reported that there were either no toilets or a community toilet at a very long distance. To reach the place they had to travel in pitch darkness. Till they worked with the local communities to build proper toilets (which took a few months) even ladies had to answer their calls of nature behind some trees or bushes, which was completely unheard of in urban areas. Further, there were several poisonous snakes and black scorpions in the area where they stayed and they had to be continuously vigilant, particularly at night. Overall, it was a very different experience for most of the fellows and when they returned from the fellowship, they realised how fortunate they were to have been brought up in a developed environment and their commitment, empathy and understanding of rural people and their living conditions improved a lot.
Exhibit 9: Testimonials of YFI Beneficiaries
Anant Vat’s Work:
Previously we had to cut the bamboo and then file it. It meant a lot of hard work … And then we had to use sandpaper to shape the item … After this, we would burn it from both ends and create patterns on it … Finally, it was done. There was a lot of effort involved in the process. This one machine can produce uniform bamboo strips of all sizes … so we now produce all kinds of bamboo products easily. The YFI Fellows who come here… we take their suggestions and by holding their hands … we shall move forward.
Bamboo Artisan
Dagadpada, Dangs, Gujarat
Ashish Jain’s Work:
When Ashish first came here, I was not sure if he would be able to help much. All that I knew was that some people are coming to work with us at the school…Ashish told me that he would teach computing to children and the teaching staff of the school…I too lacked training in computers….The teachers did not know anything about computers….Now Ashish has taught me, the teaching staff and the children the use of computers….The children can work with MS Excel, Word and Paint….The teachers are also equipped to use these applications
Sujith Kumar Senapati, Principal, Gram Vikas Vidya Vihar,
Rudapadar Odisha
Source: From SBI-YFI documentary
Fellow Sonam’s Work:
The saltpans of Vadarayanam (in the southern Indian State of Tamilnadu) employ around 20,000 female workers who work under extreme conditions since there are no place for them to go for urination, “they avoid to drink water for the whole day which resulted in high amount of dehydration and health disorders like severe bleeding during menstruation, frequent miscarriages and skin, eye and bone disorders” said Shantana, a saltpan worker.
Women in particular were involved in land preparation, collection of salt, which made them stand in highly concentrated brine under the severe sun with fully saline air all around them. Most of the workers did not opt for safety gear, for financial and comfort reasons. There were no toilets or resting shades to have food as the salt pans was spread across hundreds of acres at a stretch. Therefore the workers avoided consuming food and water before they left for work. Doctors suggested that the workers needed to be rehydrated for them to withstand harsh working conditions. Sonam designed zero drainage urinals for the women workers to help them get over the taboo of having sanitation facilities in salt pans. With this facility, they could all consume water and liquids frequently which helped them get over the dehydration problem and improved their health condition phenomenally. These zero drainage toilets have now become order of the day all across the salt pans of Vadarayanam.
Source: https://sbiyouthforindia.wordpress.com/page3
As narrated by Shantana, a Saltpan worker of Vadarayanam, Tamil Nadu
Exhibit 10: Chart Depicting Increasing Number of Participants Over the Years
| 2011–12 | 2014–15 | 2015–16 | |||||||
| External Fellows | SBI Internal Fellows | Total | External Fellows | SBIInternal Fellows | Total | External Fellows | SBI Internal Fellows | Total | |
| Capacity | 50 | 0 | 50 | 90 | 10 | 100 | 90 | 10 | 100 |
| Applied | 4500 | 6500 | 15000 | ||||||
| Recruited | 34 | 0 | 34 | 60 | 6 | 66 | 65 | 6 | 71 |
| Attrition/% | 7 (20.59%) | 0 | 7 | 14 (21.21%) | 1 (16.66%) | 15 | 13 (20%) | 1 (16.66%) | 14 |
| Completed | 27 | 0 | 27 | 46 | 5 | 51 | 52 | 5 | 57 |
| No. of Partner NGOs | 3 | 5 | 7 | ||||||
| No. of Locations | 19 | 20 | 23 | ||||||
Note: For the fourth batch, SBI Foundation, decided to recruit the target 100. They reopened the application period to be able to select the required number of candidates.
Exhibit 11: Attrition Trend Across the Batches
| Reasons cited for leaving YFI | Comments | Attrition across the years | |||
| 2011–12 | 2014–15 | 2015–16 | Total dropouts | ||
| Adjustment issues | Cannot adjust to rural setting, frustration due to pace/direction of the project, misalignment of expectation from the Fellowship | 2 | 6 | 6 | 14 |
| Alternative career options – Academic | Pursuing higher studies or training | 3 | 5 | 8 | |
| Alternative career options – Professional | Another job opportunity or setting up own business | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Disciplinary action | Serious breach of code of conduct of the Fellowship | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| Medical issues of self or family | 1 | 1 | 5 | 7 | |
| Personal issues | Commitments that come up in personal life, like having to help out in family business. | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
Exhibit 12: Post-Fellowship Impact: First Batch of Fellows
- From training local youth to selling and maintaining solar equipment, Simran Singh Grover became the Chief Technology Officer of Boond, providing solar lighting solutions in Rajasthan.
- After prototyping an IVRS helpline with 100 farmers and fisher folk, Ankit Walia started working on a pan-India helpline on similar lines with Reliance Foundation, expected to address 60,000 queries in its first year.
- After working on spreading awareness on workers’ rights under right to work scheme of the government, Satyanand Mukund did his Masters in human rights and started working with migrant laborers.
- Sandeep Vishwanath, Programme Officer at Agastya Foundation continued to work on a project using his Fellowship experience of teaching tribal children.
- Aditi Rao joined as Assistant Project Manager in a organization working for ecological security.
This case was prepared for inclusion in SAGE Business Cases primarily as a basis for classroom discussion or self-study, and is not meant to illustrate either effective or ineffective management styles. Nothing herein shall be deemed to be an endorsement of any kind. This case is for scholarly, educational, or personal use only within your university, and cannot be forwarded outside the university or used for other commercial purposes.
2023 Sage Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved
