After two successful editions in Delhi (April 2019) and Bengaluru (September 2019), Arthan, Amani Institute and The International Innovation Corps travelled to Mumbai - the city of dreams for the third edition of the Demystifying Social Impact Careers conference series!
The Demystifying Social Impact Careers (DSIC) conference series was born out of the idea that while there are more and more people around the world, including India, are questioning traditional career paths and looking to find more meaningful work, there isn’t enough awareness around opportunities available on this ‘unconventional’ route.
Since inception in 2019, the conference series has aimed to challenge the widespread notions and myths around social sector careers. Low-pay, only NGOs, insubstantial work or a break from the 'real world work' - are only a few of the myths the conference series has debunked by curating insightful conversations and innovative workshops and sessions around the transformation of the social impact sector, and discussing what the future means for those working and/or looking to work in this space.
The Mumbai Edition
Supported by the Ford Foundation, the Mumbai edition was held at ISME - School of Management & Entrepreneurship, Mumbai and saw a turnout of more than 130 participants, who got the opportunity to listen to and interact with 25+ thought leaders from the sector sharing their journey, experiences, insights and advice during the day. Attendees went away with a greater understanding of what to expect from the impact sector - in terms of the variety of work opportunities and how to navigate them.
The Long Conversation
The day began with The Long Conversation where Chetna Sinha (Mann Deshi), Deval Sanghavi (Dasra), and Luis Miranda (Centre for Civil Society) interviewed each other to understand more about their social impact journeys. Chetna Sinha stressed on the need of not designing ‘poor’ solutions for the poor and how mobile handsets had brought a global mindset to the rural population, changing the way they think, thus changing the solutions that need to be designed for them. Deval Sanghavi shed light on his journey across Indian cities and the influences travel can have on a person. Luis Miranda shared the story of his friend who, even while working in the corporate sector, helped reduce plastic waste, thereby showing the power of an individual to create impact.
Following this session, there were three parallel panel discussions that the participants could choose from based on their interest.
Panel 1: Making a living while working in social impact
Moderated by Satyam Vyas (Arthan), this panel included Devangana Mishra (Teach for India), George Aikara (United Way Mumbai) and Smita Deorah (LEAD School) who had discussions centred around skills that can be transferred from the private to the social sector, ways to find the right opportunities in the sector, the need for founders to let go of the control and micro-management of their organisations as they scale and including people with a technology background in the social impact space.
Panel 2: Beyond CSR: The rise of corporate purpose
Creating an impact doesn’t have to be restricted to the social sector. This discussion, which was moderated by Roshan Paul (Amani) had Aarti Wig (Yunus Social Business), Anshu Bhartia (UnLtd India), Ganesh Raja (Kotak Education Foundation) and Gaurav Gupta (Dalberg) talk about ways in which corporates can make a social impact and go beyond their CSR mandates and budgets. While Ganesh Raja explained that to truly understand the challenges of the people we intend to serve, we must also be willing to live like them, Gaurav stressed on the need of not looking at this space as another sector but as solving problems we would like to solve.
Panel 3: Learning from mistakes: Building a career in the impact sector
Moderated by Shehzia Lilani (Amani), this session included Gayatri Divecha (Godrej Group), Jaspreet Gurm (TechnoServe) and Sharon Buteau (LEAD at Krea University) who spoke about some of the key mistakes people make while transitioning into the sector and stressed on the importance of understanding that working in the social impact sector doesn’t mean easier workloads and seeing immediate change. Time, effort, and resilience are needed to work in this sector and most importantly, having an open mind to understand the multiple layers of problems that exist before coming up with solutions.
Lunch Roundtables
For the first time, the conference had roundtable sessions during lunch to not only enable greater networking and collaboration opportunities but give the participants access to a wide range of discussions that would help with their understanding of the sector. Conversations centred around topics such as Social Finance by Ashutosh Tyagi, AI for Social Good by Nikhil Velpanur from Wadhwani AI. Mridhula Sridharan (Arthan) and Arjun Sashidhar (Amani) moderated a table on Transferability of Skills from Corporate to Social Sector. Anshu Bhartia (UnLtd India) spoke about gender while Mary Ellen Matsui (Atma) led discussions on Grassroots Social Change. Shriya Sethi (IIC) spoke about working with Governments in the social sector.
Walk Your Talk
The Walk Your Talk, one of the most awaited sessions, had four speakers sharing their personal stories of change in a TED Talk format. Mary Ellen Matsui (Atma) shared her story of dealing with mental health challenges being an entrepreneur and the importance of addressing these challenges continually, constantly. Amit Chandra (Bain Capital) took the audience through his journey of the times when he went against the advice of his mentors, and followed his heart instead and how those decisions were turning points in his life. Sophy Sivaraman (Indian Documentary Foundation) narrated a personal incident that showed her that while it is not always possible to control everything, the power of believing that things can and will change for the better is one of the strongest in the world. Sujata Sahu (17000 ft Foundation) spoke of how travelling solo through Ladakh in 2010 went on to become a turning point in her life. She spoke not only about working on ideas that move us but the need to build practical models to achieve goals.
The day ended with two interactive workshops - Deciphering Entry into the Social Sector by Arthan and Becoming Good at Networking by Amani Institute.
After three successful editions, Demystifying Social Impact Careers hopes to travel to more cities across the country to pave the way for more people to transition to the growing social impact sector in India.
And we hope to see you there! Let us know if you would like DSIC to travel to your city. Write to us at content@arthancareers.com