January 11, 2023
The People’s Voice Comes First
The weeks leading up to GCIL filled me with anticipation for the opportunity to learn, but also a feeling of intimidation for the challenges that were to come. Within me was a desire to accomplish something meaningful not just for the city of Bangalore, but for my own personal development. Since I arrived in Bangalore, I have continued to wonder how exactly I will accomplish the goals I set for myself during my time here in the city. I feel lost at a way to organize my thoughts and push forward. Listening to individuals describe the challenges that they have faced throughout their lives and seeing with my own eyes the struggles that some individuals experience in this city have made me aware of my own relative privileges.
Today, our group had the experience of visiting and interacting with the staff of Hasiru Dala, an organization dedicated to working with waste pickers in the city of Bangalore to provide them with the means to achieve a better quality of life. What made this organization stand out was its dedication to putting the well-being of the waste pickers at the forefront of its priorities. The organization enabled waste pickers that previously struggled at developing their personal identity in Bangalore to have a chance at finding a way to pursue more with their lives and achieve a sense of dignity. Perhaps the greatest takeaway I received from listening to the members of Hasiru Dala was a message that has been repeated throughout the past few weeks and was emphasized once again today: listen to the people.
As our professor Julian Marshall would say, engineers are amazing at finding solutions to the wrong problems. Shekar Prabhakar, co-founder of Hasiru Dala Innovations, discussed how he initially had no idea that the organization would become centered around improving the waste-picking process for the people working the streets of Bangalore. He initially started the organization with the sole intention of seeking to work with and aid the waste pickers in whatever manner they seemed fit, and only transitioned the organization into what it is today because the waste pickers expressed a desire to do so. The approach of listening to the people first before deciding a pathway for the organization was one that enabled Hasiru Dala to circumnavigate the dangers that many others would face if they attempted to engineer the solution to a problem they had not yet understood.
Perhaps the next step in my journey starts with patience. Before I can help work towards a solution to a grand challenge, I need to start small, and before I start small, I need to understand what the problem actually is. To understand that problem, I need to listen to the desires of the people that experience it.
