Sheriff Indu believes that she holds 'An Office Of Influence'

Making a forceful point. The Sheriff of Bombay, (Dr.) Indu Shahani, who was the guest speaker at the last meeting

Forget the romanticised, gun-toting shooters of yore; the role of the Sheriff in a modern, democratic society is to act as a catalyst; to help service-minded people to network with others of their ilk; so that together they can improve things and change the social order.
In other words, the Sheriff.s office has an apolitical, non-executive role to play and works in a totally transparent manner.
But more than anything else, the office of the Sheriff, when handled with sensitivity, is an office of influence.
This point was forcefully made at the last meeting by the current Sheriff, (Dr.) Indu Shahani, a proud member of the Rotary Club of Bombay, while sharing her experiences of .The first 100 days in office.
She came to the conclusion about the Sheriff.s office being an office of influence when she noted that even though her title bestowed no executive powers on her, she was able to coordinate meetings and catalyse collabo-rations between those in charge and those keen to help improve things in the city.

In introducing Indu, PP Vithal Palekar said that she was an outstanding academician and one of the most personable members of the Club who had done a tremendous amount of work for society.
Apart from being Principal of H.R. College, she had helped implement several innovative training techniques which had spread not only all over India but throughout the world.
She was a member of Bombay University.s Academic Council; of the commerce faculty; the business management faculty; and so on. The first Indian on the Board of Governors of the International Baccalaureate Organisation, she was its Vice-President. She was also a visiting faculty at the UCLA, Berkeley.

Recipient of several honours, awards and titles, she was well-known in the field of management studies and was on the board of directors of several companies, including Indian Oil, Bajaj Electricals and so on.
And what was her power base? It was her track record of what she had been able to achieve over the last 20 years that had helped her become powerful. But her power came from the empowerment of students. In a hypothetical list of .the most powerful people in Bombay., (Dr.) Indu Shahani would figure at a very high level, Vithal added.
Getting into her stride, Indu recalled that she was introduced to the Club by PP Dr. Rahim Muljiani. And as far as her appointment as Sheriff was concerned, she believed that it was an honour to the entire teaching community, because this was the first time that a serving teacher had been appointed Sheriff.
She complimented the government for bringing education into the forefront and for realising that health and education were the real priorities of the country.

"Therefore, I dedicate this post to all the teachers who are making the great difference in the city and in the nation, and in nurturing thousands of young children who will be the future of India"
.One of the most surprising discoveries that she had made about the city, she said, was the emergence of an entirely new breed of youngsters who were called "social entrepreneurs".
And "social entrepreneurship" was defined in very clear terms: Doing well by doing good; making a social cause a business enterprise.
This was a clear sign of a future trend, for social enterprises could not survive on charity for ever. It was necessary for every initiative to be sustainable. For example, the private ambulance service 1298 had built such sustainability that even the Rotary Club of Bombay had given its Heart Brigade ambulances to it.
"On 1298, you call for a private ambulance and you pay for it. If you call for an ambulance to take you to a public hospital, you don.t pay for it. It.s a simple model".
.It was run by three youngsters who had just returned from the London School of Economics, who held lucrative jobs with MNCs like GE and so on, but who left their jobs, returned to India and started a social enterprise for the country - but they were not running it at a loss.
The Sheriff said the 1298 helpline was one of the most important achievements of her first 100 days in office. It had evolved through various stages to the extent that one NGO (the 1298 ambulance company) had partnered with several other NGOs to respond to calls related to violence against women, domestic violence and sexual harassment.

The 1298 helpline has now become a helpline for the whole of Bombay, says Indu Shahani

Now, there were calls to help animals, for stray dogs, shelters for sparrows, for aged women and so on.
So much so, that the 1298 helpline had become a helpline for the whole of Bombay and just about everyone was calling up on encountering any kind of problem.
"Every second day, somebody knocks on the door with some proposal or other to do something for the city. Two young people walked in the other day; they were under 30 and had done Emergency Management at Cornell University. They had a plan for the city.
"What can I do? I asked. They said, we want you to connect some people for us . connect Hinduja Hospital, connect Sion Hospital, connect the Police Commissioner, and so on.
"I shot off letters to everybody; they all had a meeting; on July 11, you will be happy to know, these two young people from Cornell will be setting up an emergency plan for the city on the anniversary of the Bombay train blasts. This is the spirit I have seen since I became the Sheriff."

Indu recalled that within ten minutes of taking the oath as Sheriff, she was confronted by the media wanting to know whether she had an agenda. That was when the student empowerment model that she had followed in her college helped her. On her way to meet the media, she sent an SMS to her students, asking, .Can you give me the wish-list of a new Sheriff in Bombay?"
In response, she received hundreds of replies, one SMS per second; the students gave her so many ideas that she just rattled them off in front of the cameras . a women.s helpline, projects for health, blood donation camps, clean Bombay, the works.
But while she was talking to the media, one young student thrust a piece of paper into her hand and asked her to read it out to the media.

The chit read: "We have created an email address for you, sheriffofmum bai@gmail.com; please tell the media that you are now contactable on this email and that you don.t want to be a ceremonial Sheriff but that you want to be a citizens, Sheriff.
She received 178 emails within 24 hours. One of these came from Mr. Shaffi Mather in Harvard, saying: .Offer of a free 24x7 call centre to run your helpline."
"I was taken aback. I had rattled off many things, like I wanted a women.s helpline because I had felt very strongly about it; but how would I run it? Here was a man offering me a call centre; but who would answer the calls? I called him and asked him to meet me. He said, .I.m in Harvard but some young people will come and meet you."
That was when the youngsters behind the 1298 service, Shweta Mangal, Christopher Walker and their colleague, met her. They were running the 1298 service and would help in setting up the women.s helpline. And it was set up within a month . as simple as that! It was then that she had realised that there was a new breed of youngsters in the city called "social entrepreneurs".

(Dr.) Indu Shahani said when the women.s helpline was launched, no advertisements were released. There was only a reference to it in newspapers like The Times of India. But despite the lack of publicity, the number of calls received in February was an astounding 660. In March there were 593 calls and in April 376.
Most of the calls related to women being harassed by their husbands on account of an extra-marital affair, or the beating of a wife by a drunk husband and cases related to divorce. Interestingly, many of the callers just needed to talk to the counsellor.

Some emails also started coming in around that time. But it was shocking to receive emails from top Managing Directors of companies saying their daughters were being harassed.
It was clear that many of women were still not comfortable with the idea of picking up the phone and talking to the helpline; it was then decided to start an e-helpline for women, call1298@rediffmail.com, with the help of Rediffusion.
Fifteen thousand hits were registered in three months! While a good number were just hits out of curiosity, many had sent urgent emails.
One advantage of the ambulance company running the helpline was that if a woman was seriously hurt, the ambulance was immediately sent to take care of her and to take her to hospital; the follow-up for the problem was done there.
The most effective NGO working on the helpline was the Special Cell for Women and Children which was doing outstanding work. When a molestation case was reported (it was similar to the December 31, 2007 case), it was followed up promptly and sensitively.
"The best thing that.s happening now is that girls are calling up and telling us. I think that.s the great change that is taking place".

Did he really do it? Did she really mean it? (Dr.) Indu Shahani said at the last meeting that when she was informed that she had been named the Sheriff of Bombay, she had banged the phone, thinking that it was Haresh pulling a fast one on her. Seen at the last meeting (from left) PP Haresh Jagtiani, PP Dr. Adi Dastur, President Dr. Rumi Jehangir, (Dr.) Indu Shahani, Miss Simran Kaur, who is vying for the title at the next Miss Universe contest, and Sabira Merchant. (Right) So, who.s the most personable member of the Club? PP Vithal Palekar, who introduced the guest speaker, with Sabira and Indu.

Here.s wishing you bon voyage and good luck. President Dr. Rumi Jehangir greets Miss Simran Kaur, India.s next .Miss Universe. contestant. (Right) President Rumi presents Rajas Doshi the crystal medal received from The Rotary Foundation on his becoming a .Major Donor.. Rajas has contributed Rs. 3 lakhs to The Foundation this year.

The Sheriff is now training NGO staff in handling calls . and is helping the police, too

Indu said one of the weak links in the endeavour was the NGOs. lack of experience. They had great intentions but did not have the capacity to answer calls. For this reason, she had arranged a training session for NGOs so that they also learnt how to answer calls.
This was made possible by the funding now becoming available. The result was that counsellors were appointed who sat along with the operators on 1298 and took over if a woman just wanted to talk.
After all, not all cases were police cases. In fact, only 5% of calls were required to be registered as police cases; the rest just wanted counselling and some guidance.
"We are now working with 103, which is the police helpline and which came up after we set up 1298. We are working together in such a way that our urgent calls will be sent to 103 and their non-urgent calls will be routed to us on 1298. They (the police) are bothered by a lot of calls which just want some information".

The most important thing was that the 1298 helpline had become a sustainable project . and within her first 100 days in office.
At present, 27 NGOs were working in close coordination with her "and we are improving and improvising as we go along; I think we have addressed a need which we didn't realise was so profound"
Many Rotarians had been helping her (Rotaryann Shobha Jagtiani was also lending a hand). Attempts were now being made by concerned citizens in New Delhi to replicate the women.s helpline there and in other cities as well.
Indu said that one of the good things about a teacher becoming the Sheriff was that now there wasn.t just one Sheriff. All 6,000 of her students at H.R. College believed that they were the Sheriffs of Bombay. The way they conducted the proceedings in her office, outside her office, on the roads, it was as if they were the Sheriffs.

This led her to take up another cause. As a teacher, she was always on time; but people did not expect the Sheriff to be punctual. And so it happened that when she reached on the dot of time for a function at Chembur, there was nobody around. So she went off to see the municipal school in the same building.
To her surprise, the municipal school was "run beautifully" with brilliant little children. In one class the teacher was teaching environmental studies. She asked whether she could ask a question; the teacher said yes, but in Marathi.
I asked the children in Marathi, where do you throw waste? They said, .In the dustbin.. Then I asked, while on the way home if there is no dustbin, where would you throw it? They were stumped. Then a little boy said, 'In the gutter'
"And that gave me an idea. After returning to my office, I wrote to Mr. R. Rajeev, the Additional Municipal Commissioner, suggesting .dustbinmapping . outside schools and colleges. The idea worked and the project has now been taken up by the Interactors".

The Rotaractors on the other hand helped to promote the "Clean Bombay" project. This city of 13 million people had just 200 marshals to warn and fine people dirtying the streets.
Clearly, 200 marshals could do precious little. Now, the students were becoming .student marshals. who would warn but not fine. They would warn those throwing litter by blowing the "Sheriff's whistle"

"So now, for the right reasons, whistles are blowing outside colleges!"

The programme had been launched in South Bombay and would soon spread to Borivli and Juhu. Students would blow the whistle on seeing garbage and litter on the roads.
According to one report, Indu said, the city of Shimla had taken up the project and had put up banners saying, Seetee bajao, kachra hatao.
Yet another ambitious project was "Citizens' Water Helpline" with a toll-free number 1800 2293333. On receiving a call, this service would send a licensed plumber who, at a nominal cost, would fix leaking taps.
This project was being undertaken by students in collaboration with M/ s Eureka Forbes and a plumbers. association. It was taken up after a survey showed that the city.s water problem was not on account of a shortage of water; rather, it was because of wastage due to leaky taps for which plumbers were difficult to come by.
In the academic field, the Sheriff was involved with .Sigma. with Mr. Milind Deora, MP. Six colleges were identified in South Bombay and would get industry support for enhancing education. This would ensure academia- industry integration.
But the most exciting programme was taking a Sheriff.s delegation to the UK of 14 Principals of leading colleges of Bombay University. They would visit universities, share and discuss practices, and also attempt to understand how Vice-Chancellors there were able to come up with a "vision" for their universities.
They would visit Cambridge and Oxford. The Sheriff of London would host them for tea and the House of Lords was also likely to invite the delegation.

Sadly, Indu said, of the 13 Principals in the team, all of them from leading colleges with over one lakh students on their rolls, eight Principals had applied for a passport for the first time in their lives. This meant that they had never had any global exposure and that they had never interacted with academicians abroad.
"This is the big gap that exists today between the academia and the corporate world. If we can bridge this gap, if we can give them exposure.... (then it would be excellent).
Another first would be when ICICI in UK would host the firstever alumni meeting of the University of Bombay in London".

Send me your suggestions, I.ll call a meeting, and we.ll see what we can do for spastics, the Sheriff promises Kamal Bulchandani

(Dr.) Indu Shahani thanked the Club and her fellow Rotarians for their help and support as she went about fulfilling her duties. She reminded them that she was always available on email, sheriffofbombay@gmail. com. If anyone felt that there was something important to be done, or if someone could help in her projects, she would appreciate it.
She ended with a little poem: Chandni phail jati hai suraj ke doobne ke baad; Mehendi rang laati hai sookh jaaneke baad; Lekin zindagi? Zindagi ban jaati hai Mumbai mein aaneke baad.
(Moonlight spreads after the sun sets; the colour of henna emerges after it dries; but life? Your life is made after you come to Bombay.)
Answering questions, Indu told Kamal Bulchandani that she was ready to take up the cause of spastic children if he presented her with a concept paper. She would also call a meeting of all those working for spastics.
When Burjor Poonawala asked about a helpline for men, Indu said with tongue firmly in cheek that she would start one for pampered men after her term ended.
Rotaractor Richa asked for the secret behind her success . as Principal, housewife and Sheriff, rolled into one. Indu replied: "You, the students, you are my inspiration"
The vote of thanks was proposed by Pradeep Saxena.