Arvind, Coordinator, Coastal Intervention
Arvind heads the coastal team of CSJ. He has LLB and MSW degrees, but has not litigated.
Arvind grew up with personal experiences of discrimination from his early years. He recalls how he was treated differently from others because of his caste, and cites Ambedkar as a great influence. This consciousness was imbibed by him as early as the age of 10, when he started attending the Ambedkar Jayanthi celebrations in his village. He also cites as an inspiration his father, who was a teacher and gave him full freedom to pursue his dreams.
Arvind has been associated with CSJ since he completed class 10, and joined a volunteer training group in the village. Subsequently, he participated in CSJ’s paralegal training programmes after completing class 12. He then started working full time and completed his legal education while working. Were it not for CSJ, he says, he would have become a casual labourer. He has now been associated with CSJ for sixteen years.
After considering the futility of education, he decided not to be a teacher. At the same time he did not want to be a soulless lawyer too. CSJ provided the answer with the opportunity to be a community leader working for socio-legal empowerment.
Over the course of this time, his attitudes and views to the world have changed. At the time of joining, he was somewhat casual and used to think of social issues in a very local way. Experience has enabled him to connect the dots and see the larger picture, visualising issues in terms of justice and its larger impact on society. He has also been able to think in terms of the future.
He feels angry when people do not read about issues they are working on, and only look for problems and not solutions. He has had several aha moments, mostly when he has disproved his critics. One instance is the case of Shiyalbet island, where the initial discussion revealed a lack of hope regarding electricity. Now the village is electrified and he is joyful. Another instance was where they helped an old lady, a midwife, follow up on her application for a PHC in her village. After 3-4 years of relentless pursuit with the authorities, the PHC was finally sanctioned in the village.
He believes it is important to find the one revolutionary in a village. People are not affected by the law but by the possibility of results.
The State has some advantages. It is disciplined and ensures accountability mechanisms.
The disadvantages are that it does not follow. People get drunk on power and become insensitive.
He sees the coastal program, which he coordinates, as his most significant contribution to the organisation.