We joined with more trainers to take things forward

Too many initiatives become about one person. The most well-intentioned group often becomes over-reliant on one or two individuals — sometimes to the detriment of the work itself. Having observed this in movements, networks, NGOs and trade unions, I had told myself I would try not to go that path.

With the digital awareness trainings I conducted in Vidarbha, too. Even as I had designed the course, piloted it (always ensuring there was a local person in the co-trainer or co-facilitator role), tested it and taken it to 1,000 people, I was conscious I should not become the sole holder and disseminator of that knowledge.

One tried-and-tested way to address this was to create a pool of master trainers — people qualified and confident to carry out such trainings with good results. This was something I had done before in other contexts: training of trainers for social audits of public welfare schemes.

Working without funds or institutional backing — sometimes without even friends to brainstorm with — was challenging. I knew the initial phase would require strong partnerships with local organisations.

The opportunity came through the NGO Khoj

I had first known about Khoj in 2013, in the context of their award-winning work on forest rights and malnutrition in the tribal areas of Melghat, Maharashtra. While searching for like-minded people and groups in Vidarbha, the names of founders Purnima tai and Bandu bhai came up repeatedly.

A single phone conversation with Bandu bhau established we were on the same page. He described tribal youths heavily addicted to mobile phones. He told me of a case of suicide linked to gaming addiction. Payment frauds were common. There was a clear need for sustained, qualified training in the digital space — and he had been searching for the right person to lead it.

Khoj's strong community presence meant they already had a pre-identified group of 40 people who could be developed as master trainers: social workers and community leaders already committed to working with the tribal communities they lived among.

Designing the training-of-trainers programme

A two-day syllabus was designed. Working with colleagues Milind and Asit, we divided topics between us and created space for games, interactions and creative participative forms — including role-plays and skits. An intensive digital training, we hoped, would add a new dimension to their existing body of work.

For me personally, this meant a great deal. It was important that ideas live their own life — that they get carried forward into communities through the language and lens of community leadership, rather than mine or anyone else's.

That is why I look forward, always, to the moment when the work no longer needs the person who started it.