IAK – Global activists fight local problems!

Global activists fight local problems. IAK, a novel perspective of activism!

TechnoparkToday.com(March, 2014): Time and again we have heard voices of crusaders fighting for social reforms. More often than not, their voices dwindle down in the commotion created by outrageous media sensationalism or wear down struggling with a torpid system that inherently subverts attempts to reform. This puts the spot light on the need for a renewed mind set capable of shifting the balance in favour of reforms and in turn the citizens. In the wake of this realisation, a bunch of highly motivated young Keralites located across the globe have come together with a common cause to fight for social reforms.

IAK, with their motto ‘got Inspired, now Act, be Kind’ is a sodality of young minds scattered across the globe. The group was formed as a culmination of discrete interactions on social media that later evolved through many conference calls, Facebook chats and emails among its founding members who claim to have discovered in each other an insatiable appetite to stand up for social causes and an unfaltering conviction to take action, to be part of the solution, to lend more meaningful pith to democratic governance. The group claims to have drawn inspiration from the recent events in Delhi that they believe categorically redefined the limits of what is possible. They advocate the need for action rather than voices and are led by the doctrine that each and every citizen has a role to play in making this nation a better place.

According to IAK founding members, there are three key differentiators that make IAK unique. ‘The uniqueness of its genesis is one’, says Vishakh Cherian, one of the founders. US based Vishakh spoke to his friend Hari Nair in Thiruvananthapuram about some contemporary socio-political trends in India and Kerala in particular, that called for a wider discussion involving Vinod Rajan in Kochi, Gopi Nair in London, Anjana Thomas, Sudhish Radhakrishnan and Renjith Ramachandran in Thiruvananthapuram, Sreeram Ramakrishnan in Bangalore, Aju George in Singapore, Jithin Jerald and Vivek John in the U.S.A and Dr. Hari Muraleedharan in Kollam. Harnessing the power of the internet and multitude of communication media presented by the online world, the group soon realised the common factor. ‘We discovered that we were all inspired to stand up and act for the common good’, adds Vishakh. ‘All of us are in one way or the other linked to Thiruvananthapuram. So we decided to address the most pressing problem that the residents of Thiruvananthapuram city are facing now. Stray Dogs. This strong desire attracted more friends to the group from across the globe eventually culminating in the formation of IAK’, said Anjana.

‘The other aspect that makes us unique is a refreshingly new mindset that we call ‘Back to the Roots’ thinking’, said Gopi. IAK believes that in an increasingly shrinking world, it is not sensible to blame brain drain but rather it should be taken advantage of. ‘So it is imperative to encourage people to think about what they can do for the nation regardless of their location, thereby bringing their thoughts back to the roots. By converting the collective power of thoughts and ideas from vibrant minds across the globe that have been exposed to different cultures, systems and standards, into action, a palpable change can be brought about’, added Gopi. ‘It is not the sole responsibility of resident Indians to think about solutions to problems at home. NRIs and migrants, with their wider exposure can also contribute to problem solving and towards general advancement of the society back home. And one of the key differentiating principles of IAK is to promote and facilitate that aspect’, added Sreeram. ‘There is a vast pool of untapped native talent in business, technological and social spheres with immense experience globally and with MNCs. There is a need to channel such under-utilised skill to provide impetus to much needed initiatives like these’, says Hari.

The recent incident of a little school girl being bitten by a stray dog had created much outrage in Thiruvananthapuram with the residents calling for action from the Corporation of Thiruvananthapuram and its Mayor against the stray dog menace. ‘An image of the child crying in distress that appeared in the media shocked us all and a deep sense of responsibility for the children of Thiruvananthapuram tugged us for action’, says Hari. This gave birth to an IAK initiative to curb the menace.

‘The third aspect is the doctrine that we uphold that a government is only as good as its citizens’, said Vinod. ‘IAK neither believes in blame-game nor in pointing fingers at the Government for all the problems of the citizens’, he added. IAK founders claim they are exponents of action rather than words. ‘The plan is not to write a paper about potential solutions and then drop it at the Mayor’s desk for further action. We will take a 360 degree approach starting with conceptualisation, ideation, solution and implementation. We are working with NGOs and voluntary organisations and will facilitate a conducive environment for collaboration with the civic bodies to implement a strategic solution’, added Gopi. The ground work of the initiative to help the Corporation of Thiruvananthapuram effectively address the stray dog situation is in progress. IAK founders said that a lot of research has been done studying solutions attempted across the globe to resolve the problem of stray dogs. ‘Drawing learnings from failed attempts elsewhere and incorporating aspects that succeeded, a holistic solution that is viable and sustainable will be proposed’, says Vishakh.

‘IAK has gone one step further by collating ideas and information from the general populace, a technique called crowd-sourcing that has proven to be highly effective in creating workable solutions’, says Sreeram. They have also reined in the help of technology to make the solution more robust. A mobile application to assist the citizens report problems will be rolled out along with the solution proposition. ‘We are doing it for free to demonstrate our sincerity with this initiative. We hope the authorities will see the earnestness and reciprocate with appropriate action to root out this problem’, added Sreeram.

What is most interesting is the coming together of techies from different parts of the world in the cyber space and collaborating to achieve a common goal for the benefit of ordinary citizens. ‘We are driving the initiative much like a corporate IT project from start to finish’, says Anjana. The solution will be proposed as a white paper with follow on actions including short films and campaigns for awareness. Surprisingly, the coordination is done entirely online. They plan to approach the Government of Kerala to deploy the solution across the state once it is successfully implemented in Thiruvananthapuram city.

The IAK page on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/gotInspiredByAK, has already gathered more than 3000 followers in 2 months since inception and is gaining ground daily among the youngsters across India.