Her face resting on the parched earth burning under the hot sun, her hands clutching at straws, the famine struck tiny body was struggling to crawl towards the UN feeding centre in Ayod, South Sudan.  It was still half a mile away.

Kevin Carter saw the vulture calmly stand behind her, waiting to feed on the girl when she died.  He was hoping the vulture would spread its wings before approaching the girl after her death.  It would make for a more dramatic picture.  When he couldn’t wait anymore, he clicked the photograph, shooed away the vulture and left.  There were three other photographers with him.  Later, when he was asked why he did not help the girl, Carter said,

“I didn’t want to get involved.”

Kevin Carter got a Pulitzer Prize for this photograph in 1994. 

She saw them coming and ran back towards Reni village with haste to Gaura Devi. Deforestation in the Garhwal region of India had caused landslides and floods rendering many homeless with no livelihoods.  Contractors were being gifted tenders to chop away the precious forests and the villagers had begun to organise themselves.

Men of Reni village had left that morning for travel when the lumberman arrived. Alerted in time, Gaura Devi who was the head of the village Mahila Mangal Dal responded immediately.  She led 27 of the village women to the site and confronted the armed loggers with bare hands.  So, they hugged the trees and chanted:

“This forest is our mother's home; we will protect it with all our might”.

The women protected the trees with their bodies all night against weapons, physical and verbal threats. After a four-day stand-off, the contractors left. But the movement had just begun.

Within two years of this incident in 1974, the Reni Forest had a 10-year ban placed on tree felling. The Chipko movement, where tree huggers prevented deforestation at scale became a symbol of women led non-violent resistance globally.

Carter was not a villain. He had captured the famine for the world to see. Many would argue for years that he did his job and that should be enough. I often wonder if there is a right answer to this question. 

We may be shocked that each of the four photographers chose to be bystanders instead of taking action to save the girl. Their assumption that she will be fine was not wrong. She did reach the relief centre. But her journey was arduous, lonely with a high risk of death.

We keep getting shocked by the daily news, liberally commenting, and amplifying what we believe as news, feeling we have done our bit.

We become bystanders; free from the responsibility of doing anything. We carry the same sense of how-bad-this-is-but-there’s-nothing-I-can-do into responses in our own lives.

Yes, we all have a bystander in us. Whether its whizzing past in our cars watching an accident scene hoping someone in the crowd is surely calling the ambulance or ignoring the incessant plea of the young child begging for alms at the bus stop while we wait… - there is no time to spare.   

But then there are those, who choose this responsibility. Who refuse to stand by and choose to be actors. They act. They act for the larger good. They act, and therefore we are. The Indian development sector is full of such actors who have chosen to act and attack the problems of the communities they serve.

Dr. Prakash Tyagi, a qualified doctor, rejected the opportunity to practice abroad and settled in the Thar desert to serve a legacy his parents had left for him with GRAVIS. 

Flavia Agnes after two decades of facing intense marital abuse, not only left her marriage but studied to become a lawyer and worked on legal representation of thousands of women who were victims of violence, through Majlis.

Prakhar Bhartiya and Hemakshi Meghani, two out of many young people today, who could have chosen any career for themselves but chose the collective path.  These two leaders made it their life’s mission to enrich the quality of political candidates in India instead, through Indian School of Democracy.  

Remarkable people who made remarkable choices.  We can choose to admire them from afar or we can be curious and think of how to participate.

Because just like there is a bystander in all of us, there is also a doer, an actor in us, if we care to look beyond ourselves.  

While we cannot all hope to turn our lives around in dedication of a larger purpose, we can surely begin with asking:

“What can I do with what I have?”

The world is spinning at a steady pace. Rockets to the moon, artificial intelligence, block chain, IoT, and many exciting innovations alongside with natural disasters, distress migration, wars, droughts, widening wealth gap, increasing digital divide alongside with apathy and intolerance towards the other. My world is limited to the view from my window, and I function for that small world instead of society at large.  

In any society, we need all kinds of folks to do what they do; and do it well. Particularly in development, we need funders to fund, innovators to innovate, leaders to lead, and followers to follow with common purpose.  We don’t need all powerful alphas who are good at everything. We don’t need Superman to come save our world. We need many thoughtful respondents. We need conversations, perspectives, agreements, and most importantly, dissent.

We need the Avengers. A coming together of doers who do what they can, what they are good at, alongside others who are good at what they do. In a world of complex problems, no solution can come from lone warriors.

GROW has taught us that. A financial system to give grants to 100 NGOs simultaneously, our ambition was also to serve the small and mid-sized NGOs of India. We thought with our legacy of more than a decade, we knew what was needed by the grassroots. A grant for non-programmatic expenses was needed for sure, and GROW has been one of the most enriching, learning projects in EdelGive so far. But it has shown us the importance of working with partners like Social Lens and Grant Thorton if the solution should outlast us. 

It showed us we can be great at designing a solution, but to have it succeed, we needed an entire ecosystem.  We needed our 100 NGOs to inform us and enable this to succeed.  It has humbled us and changed us forever. Most importantly, it has definitely taught me that we must work with those who know better than us.

History is full of stories of Avengers; bystanders who began by taking action, then moved from being actors to becoming collaborators.

Gaura Devi, no matter how brave, could not have faced the lumbermen alone. There is strength in numbers.  There is power in a joint force. But a joint force is impossible without individual action.

In the early 20^th century while we saw one man emerging as the face of India’s independence struggle, we tend to minimise the role played by many more individuals, leaders, and powerhouses. But our incessant focus on one superhero dominates our ability to see the many diverse forces at play in any struggle. These incredible people did not always see eye to eye. They collaborated but chose their own path. They were the OG Avengers. Fighting for India’s freedom with what they had.

Every Indian who participated in the making on India, who continues to participate in it, is an Avenger.

Today, as our country moves into what could possibly be its golden era, it is our time to be there.  

Gaura Devi and the 27 women showed up with just their courage and their bodies to save a forest. We can begin with showing up with just one question…

 “What can I do with what I have?”