After 30 years in the social sector, why am I being told to leave?

I am a resident of Prempur village in Sabarkantha district, Gujarat. After spending 30 years in the social sector, I am looking for a job. Many of my friends previously employed in the sector have advised me to consider opportunities elsewhere.

I started my career as a fieldworker with an organisation called Disha when I was 22 years old. Later, I was appointed secretary of the Gujarat Khet Kamdar Union (GALU), which was run by Disha. At that time, the union had approximately 585 members. We had to stop our operations after a long journey of around 18 years due to lack of funding. By the time I was relieved of my duties, the union had grown to 59,400 members and had established its own distinct identity.

I was now looking for a job when I was around 40 years old. I spent one year at Samvedna Trust, working on issues concerning Adivasi communities, education, and labour. Apart from this, I provided support to Pathey, an organisation that works with panchayats, in their budgeting and planning processes. Additionally, I worked with the Solidarity Centre in Ahmedabad to provide unorganised workers information about minimum wages, RTI, and various government schemes.

Following these small projects, in 2016, I got an opportunity to be part of a three-year fellowship with Loktantra Shala in Rajasthan, where I worked with agricultural and MGNREGA workers. After completing the fellowship, I joined Childline 1098 as a coordinator in June 2019. However, Childline closed in July 2023 after the central government shut down the project.

Now, at the age of 52, I am once again trying to find a job in the social sector.

Having spent my entire life working in the sector and having a deep interest in this space, I started reaching out to a few well-known organisations. While their responses were positive, their answer would ultimately be, “If we find any work that is suitable for you, we will definitely let you know.”

One organisation, which works on water and organic farming, told me that funding had declined for their work in Gujarat so they were unable to hire new people. An organisation working with Adivasi farmers said that they did not have a suitable project for me. A different organisation, associated with a government project, blatantly told me, “You are too old. We only hire young workers.”

This process made me realise that each organisation has a different hiring strategy, such as the age of the workers, for how long they should be assigned to a project, and which social backgrounds they should belong to. Perhaps it is difficult to accomodate experience within these criteria.

Considering the situation, people around me suggested that I find work in some other field. But I had wholeheartedly started working in the social sector at such a young age that starting anew at 52 years old will be very difficult for me. I feel that I will not be able to do justice to any other sector, nor will I get a sense of satisfaction from it. This is why both my challenges and my search continue.

However, a question that inevitably arises in my mind is whether small and big organisations are taking any steps to secure the future of grassroots workers.

Udaysingh Makwana is a social worker with 30 years of experience in the development sector.

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Know more: Learn how English continues to be a barrier for people in the social sector.

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