Innovation,Jugaad and Power Theft

Necessity is the mother of invention and Lack of resources the mother of Improvisation or what we call “Jugaad”. The improviser in pure country sense is called Jugaadu. A more subtle word for jugaad can be “upaay”.

Urbanditionary.com defines Jugaad as a small trick that will make a "BIG Difference". Wikipedia defines, “Jugaadu” as a person who know methods/ways of doing the workaround or accomplishing the basic result by alternate/illegal means. Jugaad is somewhere between ephemeral and permanence. It is ought to be a temporary improvisation but can last for a life time. It is also considered to be a small problem fixer.

This locally made motor vehicles that are used mostly in small villages as a means of low cost transportation in India is a classical case of Jugaadship. Apart from classical jokes on it jugaad is part of our lingo, Jugaad is a very much a way of life or call it an art which is as old as life itself.

The philosophy behind Jugaad is that “Everything is manageable, solvable, everything has a work around”. My endeavor here is differentiating between different natures of Jugaad. It is social in nature, and is appreciative or is it beyond the permissible threshold of Society.

Juggad can be both Parasitic as well as Symbiotic in nature. The simple example of jugaad in everyday life can be:

Parasitic Jugaad:

Late to work, Problem finding a parking spot.

Symbiotic Jugaad:

Shopkeepers using traditional money "IOUs" and "Tokens" when running short of change

What actually provoked me to write this article is an incident which happened few days back. I have wondering in the Intellectual land of JNU when I saw a vendor lighting his small jugaad shop selling bread, butter etal with a jugaadu light bulb which was illuminated by the energy of the electric wire which was supposedly not meant for him.

It made me to think how much this kind of entrepreneurial ship and Jugaadship is really helping us.

A little googling gave me that 30.13 per cent of the energy available for sale was lost; this includes losses due to technical reasons, theft, and pilferage.

If it was only done by underprivileged it was understandable. But Power theft is a jugaad which again is a way of life for us. Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament K.D. Jeswani was booked for power theft and a Rs.90,000 fine slapped on him. There is no point giving stats but if we can do a little Jugaad in our mindsets and stop being creative with our electric meters and human meter readers, it can be a lot better.

Interesting Articles on Jugaad:

http://www.devdutt.com/the-great-indian-jugaad

http://www.livemint.com/2008/03/25000530/Rural-India8217s-jugaad-for.html

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com//articleshow/2692688.cms?

http://www.indiatogether.org/2004/apr/env-powerrob.htm