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OPENING DOORS OPENING DOORS Edited by Vivek Mansukhani and Neera Lakshmi Handa NEW DELHI To the perseverance and spirit of the IFP community in India CONTENTS Foreword 8 I IMPACT AND EVALUATION 21 1 Overview 26 © 2013 Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program 2 Seeding Social Justice 36 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any from without written permission from the publisher. 3 Barriers to Inclusive Education 44 Published by Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program, New Delhi, India 4 A Blueprint for Social Change 70 Section I: Impact and Evaluation & Section II: Alumni Case Studies Through Higher Education Researched and Written by Start Up! AUTHOR AND PROJECT COORDINATOR Manisha Gupta EDITOR Kalpana Kaul 5 Triggering Social Justice Leadership: 94 RESEARCH AND WRITING Arundhati Gupta, Swati Awasthy,Vidushi Kamani, Kalpana Kaul, Candida Moraes Building Competencies CASE STUDIES Arundhati Gupta, Swati Awasthy, Kalpana Kaul, Manisha Gupta ASSOCIATE EDITOR Malini Sood www.startup-india.org 6 Fellow Journeys and Returns 110 PHOTOGRAPHS Vidura Jang Bahadur 7 Measuring Impact: A Promise Delivered 132 [email protected] DESIGN Tania Das Gupta www.taniasethi.com II ALUMNI CASE STUDIES 153 PRINT Pragati Offset Pvt. Ltd., India www.pragati.com III ALUMNI REFLECTIONS 281 FOR ENQUIRIES OR INFORMATION CONTACT IV AWARDS AND ACADEMIC HONORS 321 Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program 12 Hailey Road, New Delhi 110001, India www.ifpsa.org and www.fordifp.org V IFP INDIA ALUMNI 325 Foreword Promoting leadership for social justice is a central goal of the Ford Foundation in higher education and in societies at large. Building on Fellows’ familiarity with International Fellowships Program (IFP). Launched in 2000, the program enabled 4,317 grassroots problems, IFP sought to strengthen their capacity—through knowledge, emerging social justice leaders from Asia, Africa the Middle East, Latin America, and skills and networks—to become effective leaders in the struggle to improve lives in Russia to pursue advanced degrees at nearly 650 universities in almost 50 countries, their communities, countries and regions. studying in development related fields ranging from social and environmental science to the arts. A survey in early 2012 showed that 82% of more than 3,200 former Fellows In India as in other IFP sites, the program sought to build a new generation of social were working in their home countries to improve the lives and livelihoods of those justice leaders who come from communities that have traditionally lacked access around them, while many of the rest were studying for additional advanced degrees to higher education. IFP India addressed marginalization through its support of or working in international organizations. candidates belonging to scheduled castes and tribes, other backward classes, religious minorities, women, the physically challenged and those with other IFP was funded by a $280 million grant, the largest single donation in the Ford forms of social deprivation. A total of 330 Fellows received awards in India’s nine Foundation’s history. The program was intended to provide postgraduate fellowships to annual competitions between 2001 and 2010. The process was both rigorous and individuals from underserved communities in countries outside the United States where highly selective: a total of nearly 20,000 preliminary applications were received at the the Foundation had grantmaking programs. In 2006, the Foundation pledged up to $75 program’s India office. million in additional funds, allowing IFP to award more than 800 fellowships beyond its original projections. The final total expenditure is expected to be approximately IFP India adopted a unique recruitment and selection model based on the global $424 million, including all Foundation grants and investment earnings. architecture of IFP, in which local implementing organizations (International Partners) were networked across major world regions and with the IFP Secretariat, the policy As extraordinary as the level and duration of funding, though, was IFP’s singular and coordinating node in New York. In the initial two years we conducted all-India premise: that extending higher education opportunities to leaders from selections; subsequently selections focused on states with major concentrations of marginalized and excluded communities would help further social justice. If social and economic marginalization: Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, successful, IFP would advance the Ford Foundation’s mission to strengthen democratic Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation and advance human achievement. It would decisively demonstrate that an international scholarship An elaborate, continuously evolving selection process aimed to ensure that IFP program could help build leadership for social justice and thus contribute to broader India Fellows were rooted in marginalized communities and combined academic social change. potential with demonstrated social commitment as well as leadership qualities. The multi-stage selection process involved, first, screening potential applicants through In striving toward its ambitious goals, the program would transform a traditional a matrix measuring socio-economic and demographic factors with significant inputs mechanism—an individual fellowship program for postgraduate degree study—into provided by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). In the next stage, a powerful tool for reversing discrimination and reducing long-standing inequalities applicants identified through the screening process were invited to submit detailed 8 9 formal applications including essays and supporting documents. Academic reviewers postgraduate programs. IFP’s experience raises the question of whether selecting pored over the written applications and chose a shortlist of semi-finalists across the only the top academic performers for prestigious international scholarships unfairly targeted states, who met the program’s requirements in terms of academic merit (with excludes talented students whose schools—through no fault of their own—leave them a minimum cut-off of 55% marks) as well as social merit (ability in leadership and poorly prepared for further study. community service). Next, the IFP India team worked with specialists from various professional sectors in each state who formed interview panels, meeting face to face While promoting higher education at one level, IFP was deeply committed to with the semi-finalists. Based on these results, a narrowed group of about 80 finalists issues of social justice and empowerment, linking access to advanced education was invited to New Delhi for interviews with a National Selection Panel. with development challenges. The focus on excluded groups such as ‘women’ and ‘geographically remote’, and due consideration given to local wisdom and experience As many have noted, IFP is truly a ‘different kind of fellowship’. Consider the following: as an academic asset, yielded unconventional profiles for an academic scholarship. by choosing not to have an age ceiling for applicants, IFP opened opportunities for people at different life stages. It did not require applicants to have prior university “This program opened the doors of opportunities and proved that given right admission in hand, but instead assisted selected Fellows in identifying appropriate circumstances the so-called ‘mediocre’ students can also excel,” says an alumnus from academic options and in navigating the actual admissions process. Those options the first cohort. widened because IFP fellowships were portable, and could be used in countries around the world; in addition, Fellows could opt for enrollments in home country institutions if personal circumstances required. Fellows studied in a wide range of disciplines IFP embodied both an enormous scope and ambitious goals. We hoped that because related to social justice and were not limited to a predetermined list of priority fields. Fellows lived and worked in some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable IFP India Fellows went on to study in nine countries (including three who studied in communities, they would see their future role as finding solutions for poverty, India) and were placed at 95 different universities. Approximately 42% studied in the discrimination, environmental devastation, lack of access to health and education and United States, while another 48 % enrolled in universities in the United Kingdom. The other similar problems that they had personally experienced or witnessed at close remaining studied in Europe, Australia, Canada and Asia. range. The fellowship, we felt, would empower recipients to bring new knowledge, skills and social networks to solve problems they had faced—and struggled against— Further, IFP recognized that because successful applicants had diverse academic their whole lives. backgrounds, many would need strong preparatory and support systems to close learning gaps and be successful in advanced study. IFP directly supported The outcomes have been extraordinary. Not only did the IFP India Fellows reach home country preparatory training for nearly all Fellows, as well as additional host impressive levels of academic success—with many receiving recognition and awards— university bridging programs for more than one third of the Fellows. Such training in addition, almost 250 former Fellows