May 2007 Edition
Civil Society News
New Delhi
YOHEI Sasakawa has never really had a problem
making money. He inherited a lot and built on it
with dedication till he was in his forties. But what
worries him a great deal is how money should be
spent. How it should be put to its best possible use. It
won’t do to just give it way and there is no point
leaving money behind when one dies. So, spending
money for him is a key managerial challenge. There 
is
a need to define the dynamics of trusteeship.
Students of the Harvard Business School go to him to
learn just this so that when they graduate to the
world of big business they can reinvent bottom lines.
Sasakawa has cut his own path. As a relentless
champion of the rights of people with leprosy, he
has straddled the world working particularly in
India to put an end to the needless stigma associated
with a wholly curable disease. It is a cause pursued
doggedly because it is important to be “consistent
and patient”, he told us in New Delhi. From
identifying camps where leprosy people live ghettoized
in fear, to holding a National Forum for them
to articulate their concerns and aspirations,
Sasakawa has shown that it is possible to turn deepseated
rejection into acceptance.
Sasakawa, who is chairman of the Nippon
Foundation and the WHO Goodwill Ambassador for
Leprosy Elimination,recently received the
International Gandhi Award for 2006 at Wardha in
Gujarat. Here are excerpts from a long and inspiring
conversation with him:
What is the Indian arm of your foundation doing
right now?
We are showing the true self of our foundation. We
are providing full disclosure, including financial.
Many NGOs fail in transparency. They believe they
are doing good for society so they are not precise
about numbers. But the money received is public
money so we have to disclose how it’s spent.
Transparency is important because I plan to visit
Indian companies and ask them to support our
foundation’s work.
Secondly we are highlighting the human aspect
of leprosy and establishing its links with civil society.
We want a free exchange of information with
NGOs and organisations so that we can break down
barriers between our foundation (which is working
only on leprosy) and other NGOs working on other
issues. It is necessary to create tools for integration.
Initially people with leprosy were very afraid to
raise their voices, believing they would be targeted.
They thought they had no choice but to live in
silence. The situation is changing. The National
Forum meeting, for instance, has made a difference.
Our National Forum wanted to have its meeting
at the YWCA. Although we paid in advance we
were rejected and stopped from staying there. But
the fact that we could come together and hold such
a meeting against such odds showed that it is possible
to speak out and have an identity.
The Global Appeal is similarly significant. When
world endorse the appeal people with leprosy
realise that they are not alone. Cured people are
raising their voices. In the National Forum we are
stressing that self-help is very important. It is necessary
to be independent.
What does Mahatma Gandhi mean to you?
I have read Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography and
tried to use it in my life. One lesson is to be patientand consistent. Once I start a job I should not
change my angle or direction. I may not be able to
make changes but if I am relentless society will
respond to make changes. I agree today globalisation
is more like collateral damage. The strong are
getting stronger notion is taking over. This is unfortunate. Business has become a game. Money is
business. But money should not be the final goal.
How to use it as a tool for your life is what is important.
I see lots of people making money. It seems to
be their only goal.
A group of 30 students from Harvard Business
School visited me. They are taught how to make
money, but not how to use that money. Okay, if you
have an MBA from Harvard you get to own a beach
house, a good car and so on.
But what else do you
do with that money? How do you integrate it into
society?
Actually, it is a great deal harder to spend money
than to make it.
Many Indian companies have CSR programmes.
But they are mostly window-dressing. What is it
like in Japan?
We are investigating the work Japanese companies
are doing and ranking them on the stock exchange.
You can see all their rankings. Soon consumers will
begin checking them out and the companies will
have reason to worry. The situation in Japan is the
same as in India. There is a lot of window- dressing
and it is all very flashy. But I think it will finally
point us inthe right direction. Well, at least something
gets done.Tell us how it is possible to integrate people with
leprosy with the rest of society and include them in
the common spaces that are available.
People afflicted with TB and other diseases get integrated.
But not those withleprosy. Currently we
have identified around 7,000 colonies and established
a database to understand each colony. It is
true they are segregated and they have their own
autonomy I would respect their autonomous status
by giving them micro credit and radically improve their colonies. Raising their living standards and
upgrading the colonies would help the process of
integration.
Colonies survive by begging. It is really sad.
Many of them have the passion and intelligence to
work but they don’t have the opportunities. They
can drive auto-rickshaws, work in several sectors
but the opportunities have to be there.
It is also true that the people with leprosy feel safer
in colonies and have peace of mind living there. The
colonies have a long history. The autonomy system
in colonies is important. When people get too old to
beg others go and earn and provide food for them.
We want to improve their living standards so they
can successfully work out of their colonies.
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