A few weeks back I received an email from an organisation that arranges awards for various categories of people saying that our NGO Dhas Gramin Vikas Kendra had been selected for an award for its exemplary work in Madhya Pradesh. The mail went on to say that the award function on a particular date would be held in a three star hotel in Indore and that we would have to pay Rs 5000 for participating in it. I didn't give the mail a second thought and deleted it immediately. However, the guy who had sent the mail was not to be deterred and he wrote back asking for my response. I told him that giving us an award was fine but since I had no intention of paying them anything for the honour, they could give it to someone else who was prepared to do so. Then I got a mail that if I was prepared to forego the lunch that was to follow the presentation of awards, then I could attend and receive my award without paying any money. So I agreed to go to their function just to see what it was all about.
On landing up at the hotel on the appointed day, I found that all the known and unknown faces in the NGO sector in Indore were milling around!! However, what intrigued me was that there were many more people from the corporate and the educational sector than there were from the NGO sector. The mystery was soon resolved as the impresario who heads the award giving organisation came on stage and talked at length about how he had been organising such functions for decades and had succeeded in getting various media and corporate sponsors to back him. He went around the country to the big cities in various states organising these award functions to recognise the achievers in all walks of life from the corporate to education to the NGO sector. The ambience of the function tried to copy unsuccessfully that of the more celebrated but not less farcical film awards.
After the impresario finished dishing out his long winded inanities, the awards ceremony started. Industry by industry a host of companies were called up on stage and they were all given a chance to speak so the ceremony became a prolonged one. Significantly the last of the industries to be called up were the green ones that were into renewable energy or water treatment showing the priority that this emerging sector has in the minds of the corporate bigwigs given that the first industries to be feted were all the highly polluting ones.
I had to hang on because the NGOs were slotted right at the end and as time was running out for the impending lunch we were just handed our certificates and not allowed to speak. This infuriated quite a few of the NGO representatives who shouted that they had paid Rs 5000 like everyone else and so they would not go without speaking!! One or two feisty ladies from the NGO sector snatched the mike from the impresario who had by now become very tired and could offer no resistance!! Enquiries revealed that each and everyone of the NGOs apart from ours had forked out Rs 5000 each for the award and so they all stayed back for the lunch while I returned with my fill of the farce that had been enacted. Such farces are of course par for the course but it was intriguing to see the low value of the NGO sector in the eyes of the corporates and the way they readily coughed up money to be recognised by it.
On landing up at the hotel on the appointed day, I found that all the known and unknown faces in the NGO sector in Indore were milling around!! However, what intrigued me was that there were many more people from the corporate and the educational sector than there were from the NGO sector. The mystery was soon resolved as the impresario who heads the award giving organisation came on stage and talked at length about how he had been organising such functions for decades and had succeeded in getting various media and corporate sponsors to back him. He went around the country to the big cities in various states organising these award functions to recognise the achievers in all walks of life from the corporate to education to the NGO sector. The ambience of the function tried to copy unsuccessfully that of the more celebrated but not less farcical film awards.
After the impresario finished dishing out his long winded inanities, the awards ceremony started. Industry by industry a host of companies were called up on stage and they were all given a chance to speak so the ceremony became a prolonged one. Significantly the last of the industries to be called up were the green ones that were into renewable energy or water treatment showing the priority that this emerging sector has in the minds of the corporate bigwigs given that the first industries to be feted were all the highly polluting ones.
I had to hang on because the NGOs were slotted right at the end and as time was running out for the impending lunch we were just handed our certificates and not allowed to speak. This infuriated quite a few of the NGO representatives who shouted that they had paid Rs 5000 like everyone else and so they would not go without speaking!! One or two feisty ladies from the NGO sector snatched the mike from the impresario who had by now become very tired and could offer no resistance!! Enquiries revealed that each and everyone of the NGOs apart from ours had forked out Rs 5000 each for the award and so they all stayed back for the lunch while I returned with my fill of the farce that had been enacted. Such farces are of course par for the course but it was intriguing to see the low value of the NGO sector in the eyes of the corporates and the way they readily coughed up money to be recognised by it.
1 comment:
Absolutely well said. Even arrogance of organiser was worst towards NGOs. Also came to know that the fees which was paid, was in the name of " Fun & joy at work" instead of in the name of organisation or event. I have attended many events earlier but it was completely disappointing.
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