Full-Time Job to Full-Time Volunteer: A New Inning of Munish Kaushik with AAP

Munish Kaushik was working in NGO sector based in Netherlands. He was very active on social media after the formation of Aam Aadmi Party. One day he asked himself “What would be his answer when his kids will ask in future that what he was doing when anti-corruption was booming and a newly born party was trying to change the system?” The simple answer that “Beta, we used like and share on Facebook” made him rethink about his purpose and contribution to the society and nation. After working in disaster management in India and Bangladesh for 17 years, Munish decided to quit his job and joined AAP as a full-time volunteer in 2015. Munish, who initially joined to work with Mohalla Sabha project is currently working with Education Department of Delhi Government. Unfortunately, the former project could not get started.

The Beginning: It was a difficult call for Munish who was working full-time, taking care of his 2 year old son and his wife’s ongoing education. After Indian independence in 1947 and 1970’s JP movement, anti-corruption movement was happening in his lifetime. He supported the movement remotely while working full-time but could not stop himself from trying to join the political movement (i.e. Aam Aadmi Party) that started after anti-corruption movement. In 2015, he took 15 days off from his Holland office to campaign for Alka Lamba in Chandni Chowk constituency. After campaigning, he went back to his job but kept receiving calls from Chandni Chowk residents regarding various issues in the constituency. After failing to convince them that he was just a volunteer in the election campaigns, Munish started working for residents in the evening hours. It became difficult for Munish to continue the balance between his job and volunteer work.

New Inning: Munish started enjoying working with people in India. He decided to join Indian politics full-time but financial decisions kept him in dilemma. With a promise to his wife that “While you are learning, I’m earning and when you will earn, I will learn”, Munish wrote to his friends about his situation and requested minimum financial support by cutting down his luxury expenses. Within a week, 69 of his friends committed a monthly contribution of Rs 1,000 from their pockets. The financial support from his friends made it easy for Munish and he began his political journey in India in 2015. Those 69 friends of Munish are still financially committed and supporting him. Munish also executes some part-time assignments to top-up his family expenses. He not only pays tax (based on annual income) but also maintains all details of financial support and field work on htttp://munshiinpublicservice.com.

Munish Kaushik with AAP volunteers at Jantar Mantar

Day Schedule: An expert in disaster management, Munish managed to join AAP with the help of his friends in the NGO sector. As a full-time volunteer, Munish’s day for AAP starts at 9:00 am and ends around midnight. He goes to the secretariat as a normal employee, campaigns in Atishi’s constituency and work on other stuff related to AAP. On a positive note, as Munish is not getting paid from AAP, he doesn’t have any fear of losing job and can raise concerns when needed. This allows individuals like Munish to work fearlessly and keep checks and balances.

Volunteers: There are many other volunteers working for AAP without any financial assistance. Currently, AAP is not able to help them due to lack of money. AAP Delhi government employs some exceptional candidates as advisors but their number and duration of service is very limited. Some advisors work on a token salary of Rs 1 per month and have been forcefully removed due to poor politics in Delhi (e.g. Atishi was removed by LG office by terming her appointment as illegal). Such embarrassments keep the volunteers from any hope for remuneration either from the party or AAP govt. They try to do their best with limited resources. In order to support these volunteers, we need to find a way and develop a model for continuous flow of funds towards their work.

Biggest Learning: Munish’s journey with AAP has some interesting turns. While working with AAP in Delhi, Munish learnt that it is very challenging to work with governmental bureaucrats. Volunteers with previous experience in private sectors have limited idea of the hurdles involved in working with government offices. He understands now how a government “does not function”. Munish is now knowledgeable in his ways around the public systems. Reasons for delaying or cancelling works appear from nowhere but it takes a lot of effort and energy to complete a single task. He also learnt about mobilizing people to create movements and dealing with individuals with different opinions and egos.

Non-Functional Functioning: There are 1,031 schools under the govt of NCT which used to stay dirty until AAP took over the government. Writing on walls is quite common in schools which on some occasions, also reflects the creativity of students. In order to encourage this creativity, during one of his visits, Manish Sisodia challenged students to paint the walls without the fear of teachers. He took the responsibility to paint all walls with plastic paint and contracted the work to PWD. Money was allocated for this work which was supposed to be completed during summer holidays. But only few walls were painted with non-washable low-quality paint and PWD department failed to buy a single box of plastic paint. In another example, procurement of tablets for school teachers was proposed but the plan remained pending for 2.5 years. Recently the procurement of tablets is approved on the condition that teachers will have to buy the tablets first and will get reimbursed later. Files related to mohalla clinics have similar pattern. Functioning of Delhi govt gained some momentum after SC decision on July 4th otherwise it was working at 10% of its capacity.

Munish Kaushik with Atishi and others 

Schools under Delhi Govt: All the educational revolutions being witnessed nowadays are specifically a feature of the 1,031 Delhi government schools (functioning under the directorate of education). Out of these, 432 schools start classes from 1st and rest from 6th standard. Majority of primary education (class 1 to 5) is controlled by MCD where they manage over 1,700 schools (functioning under different MCD commissioners). Apart from these, there are 1,400 - 1,500 private schools. Majority of students attending primary education are studying in MCD schools which are in a very poor condition. In Feb 2018, Delhi HC questioned MCD about handing over their 1,700 schools to Delhi Govt. MCD came into action after the questioning, but it slowly disappeared. In a momentary push, MCD approached Delhi government for collaborative efforts and participated in “Mission Buniyaad” program initiated by Delhi Govt. Presently, around 1.6 million students from 1 million families attend Delhi Govt schools with 53,000 teachers. Out of these students, 70% belong to families from low economic background.

Impact & Engagement: Around 10% population of Delhi is directly impacted by government educational reforms. The effect is increasing as more and more parents are opting for government schools. A newly built government school in Rohini (RPVP Rohini, New Delhi) has 95% students from private schools. Apart from the infrastructure, curriculum and teaching method developments, community engagement is also increased with empowered School Management Committees. These committees engage parents directly with the school administration. Earlier, parents who were not allowed to enter into the school system are now an integral part of it. They can check bills, food and education quality and make laws. Participation of parents was one of the reasons behind the grand success of Mega PTM organized at Delhi Govt schools.

Phase-wise Revolutions:  After AAP came into power, they started from scratch by building toilets in schools followed by other facilities. This took a lot of energy and time and after 3.5 years we can see the difference. The development process of schools can be categorized into 3 phases. Year 1 was focused on infrastructure, year 2 on upgrading classrooms and year 3 was focused on teachers and teaching methods. Anganwadi and Higher Education did not get enough attention at the beginning but they are in the pipeline. Last year, govt started reforming early childhood education by improving 11,000 Anganwadi centres. Higher Education reforms also started slow but are gaining momentum with time. They began by building skill centres (in collaboration with Govt of Singapore), entrepreneurship centers (at different schools of Delhi University), establishing new institutes and building new blocks in existing institutes. Delhi Act doesn’t allow Delhi government to open a new university. With some amendments, Ambedkar University was established along with few IT schools. NSIT is the latest to be transformed into an independent university. A plan to open an University in Hotel Management is already in progress. 

Quality & Inspections: Quality of work was another challenge for Delhi Govt which they managed by regular and random inspections. Some officials were fired due to irregularities and some were given warnings. On many occasions, payment to contractors was approved after getting a nod from people. One of the school principals was suspended on the day of retirement when he was found using old construction material on the price of new material. Being it an employee, volunteer or minister, no one escaped from the sharp eyes and efficient working mechanism of Delhi Education Department.

Munish Kaushik with Atishi nd other AAP volunteer

Education as Election Agenda: While working on various initiatives, upcoming month will be very critical for AAP. Parliamentary elections are approaching fast and it is very important for AAP to win all 7 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, specially for Atishi being the face of education revolution in Delhi. If she wins, it will build a narrative that elections can be won on the name of education instead of caste and religion. People openly appreciate and acknowledge the work done by AAP but they fear to vote based on education and health-centric agenda. This is where the main challenge for AAP lies. However, the thought process of people has started changing as citizens in different parts of India are seen questioning their government based on health, education and unfulfilled poll promises. Electoral fight for AAP in Delhi might be challenging but drawing conclusions from previous election vote shares, it will be very difficult to defeat Aam Aadmi Party candidates from 7 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.

Watch complete video of AAP Ka Radio call with Munish Kaushik.

AP USA chapter organizes a weekly conference call (AAP Ka Radio) every Sunday at noon 12:00PM EST. More details about the call and guest can be found at @aapchat (https://twitter.com/aapchat) 

Read More: Importance of SC Judgement and AAP Navigating Political Conversation 

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