Priya Desai - Work With A Purpose: ‘I specially love the heated discussions on the art & science of defecation’
Priya Desai, on working with a purpose:
What motivated you to join this space?
Family that worked in the sector, and a lack of fulfillment
in my previous job. The tipping point for me, really was when I was given a
brief to write copy when I worked in advertising, for a local brand of shampoo.
The client gave the agency some sample sachets of the product to test. I tried
the shampoo, thinking it would inspire me to write a good headline. The next
day, a clump of hair fell out when I was brushing my hair! That was really the
last straw. I wrote copy for the brand regardless, but from then on I could
never shake the feeling that I was forcing people to buy bad products, and feeding
into a consumerist culture that I did not personally agree with.
What is your current role at the India
More visibility online and offline for our platform, the India Water Portal, an open source knowledge platform for water and related issues inIndia .
We work through partnerships with other NGOs, volunteers, citizen groups, the
data community and government.
More visibility online and offline for our platform, the India Water Portal, an open source knowledge platform for water and related issues in
I also work on a Behaviour Change Communication project for
sanitation, where we aim to tackle the problem of poor
sanitation in rural India. We are working to use communication to
motivate people to build toilets in their homes, and to nudge them to use them
instead of defecating in the open.
What’s a typical day at work like?
Emails, phone calls, meetings, brainstorming. Lunch time and corridor conversation at work includes politics, poverty, development, governance, the environment, health, disenfranchisement, climate change, development aid, and of course, water and sanitation. Common topics of heated discussion are the ‘art and science of open defecation and the sanitation culture inIndia
Emails, phone calls, meetings, brainstorming. Lunch time and corridor conversation at work includes politics, poverty, development, governance, the environment, health, disenfranchisement, climate change, development aid, and of course, water and sanitation. Common topics of heated discussion are the ‘art and science of open defecation and the sanitation culture in
How is working here different from anywhere else you have
worked at before? What new skills do you need?
I was fortunate to find a job in the development sector where I could use my communication skills from the advertising industry. Working for a non-profit has been different in many ways; for one, I’m not working to make money for the agency, and that changes the entire face and nature of the work itself. Another big difference is that in development, there are no right answers or solutions. There’s a great deal of uncertainty here probably because almost everything is new and unchartered territory, and we can only learn by actually trying new things.
I was fortunate to find a job in the development sector where I could use my communication skills from the advertising industry. Working for a non-profit has been different in many ways; for one, I’m not working to make money for the agency, and that changes the entire face and nature of the work itself. Another big difference is that in development, there are no right answers or solutions. There’s a great deal of uncertainty here probably because almost everything is new and unchartered territory, and we can only learn by actually trying new things.
There are certainly some invaluable things I have learned on
this job; that interacting with beneficiaries of our funding requires respect,
compassion and patience. I’d say those are the new skills I’ve had to pick up,
along with the ability to listen and learn before forming an opinion. ..
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