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Empathy vs. Sympathy
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A visit to my hometown triggered me to explore the answer to the following questions: What do people at the base of the pyramid really want? Is it empathy or sympathy? What should a social entreprise aim to create?
About three weeks ago, I was in my hometown to spend a weekend with my family, as it was a long weekend to celebrate the Hindu New Year (called Ugadi in this part of India). There was also another reason for my visit – my nephew turned one that weekend. I always look forward to such regular, short visits to my hometown, not only for the time that I get to spend with my family but also for the gentle pace of life there. Davangere, a district headquarters located at the heart of the Southern Indian state of Karnataka, is a city of nearly 450,000 people. It serves as a commercial hub for the collection of smaller towns and villages around it. It used to be a textile hub once, but cheaper Chinese clothes put the local textile industry out of business. However, the city moved on to become a trading centre for agricultural products and more recently, an educational hub. The first thing that you would notice about the city is that it is always abuzz with a lot of activity – commercial or otherwise. A walk around the older and newer parts of the city makes one realize that its people are smart and savvy, if not as cosmopolitan or westernized as their counterparts in Bangalore.
I had read the Berkeley Bottom line’s posts about Skoll World Forum 2008 on their Social Edge blog and I was particularly intrigued by Mike and Omar’s posts on the session titled ‘Empathy and Ethics: Drivers of our Shifting Culture’. The posts triggered a lot of questions in my mind about what do people at the base of the pyramid really want. Is it empathy or sympathy? Of course, there are several answers to such questions in various books, but I decided to use my time during my hometown visit to find out if I can get the answers from people who comprise the ‘base of the pyramid’.
First up was the maid in my home. She hails from a nearby village and though she loved going to school as a child, she was forced to drop out by the time she was 12 and sent to work by her family. She, now in her 30s, has learnt quite a bit of English and is really good at everyday math. ‘I don’t need anybody’s sympathy’, she says, with an element of self-pride, ‘I only ask for enough opportunities so that I have a fair chance to lead a comfortable life’. She says she will happily move back to her village if there are enough opportunities there for her to make a decent living.
I then spoke to a man who works as a waiter in a small local eatery (which serves delicious ‘Benne Dose’ – Butter Dosa, a local speciality). He hails from a village in North Karnataka. He had the exact same things to say as my housemaid. I then spoke to a construction worker and a teenager who works as a helper in one of the numerous agricultural trading shops. Their opinions were the same.
I know that this exercise is not a systematic survey and it is hard to draw conclusions from it. However, the one thing that struck me was the fact that many people at the base of the pyramid want us to create only opportunities to them. They don’t ask for our sympathy. Western travellers and Indians raised mostly in urban centres carry a different image of the base of the pyramid – that of a group which expects sympathy. It’s probably not their fault. They only get to meet beggars in Indian cities and end up thinking that the entire base of the pyramid wants sympathy. However, empathy and a drive to create opportunities for them are the need of the hour. And this is what a social enterprise should am for. It is also probably true that a market-based approach to social entrepreneurship can bring in large-scale changes at the base of the pyramid and I shall explore that in a separate post.
I now appreciate C K Prahalad’s book on BOP – with all its perceived flaws - more than ever. I admire Muhammad Yunus and several others in the Microfinance sector. I now support social entrepreneurs even more strongly.
Empathy and Sympathy
Thanks Sagar for taking the time to write this post. I think one of the most important elements of the "base of the pyramid" (BoP) movement is its emphasis on dignity and choice. The poor deserve dignity and choice - whether they are consumers, producers, clients, etc. - and are willing to work (pay) for that dignity. A smart business - and an effective development agency - will understand this and build its venture around its ability to deliver dignity regularly and at the lowest possible cost.