— SavitriBai Phule the Design thinker

Since, this is blog intends to help us understand a wicked problem and its solution, we shall begin with a bit of a seemingly off-the-track topic and then try to weave in various threads to arrive to a solution. Let us begin with a bit of mythology, then a critique of the existing society and culture, and finally, a better understanding of the mythological metaphor to help us refine society and culture.

Saraswati — Hindu goddess of knowledge, wisdom, music and art

Understanding Saraswati …..

In Hindu mythology, “Saraswati” is the goddess of knowledge, wisdom, art and music. In Sanskrit ( the Indian counterpart of Latin) — “Sara” means essence and “Swa” means self. Hence the combined word “Saraswa” means the essence of one self and the word “Saraswati” means one who leads to the essence of one’s self or one who leads to self knowledge. Ever since the ancient times, the philosophers of both the east and the west, have laid stress on that most fundamental of all philosophical queries — “know thyself”, which emphasizes the importance of Saraswati in our day today lives. Knowledge is the antidote for ignorance and darkness, which is why Saraswati dresses in white, has a white swan as a pet and sits on a white lotus. Since, she caters to the multiple portfolios of music and knowledge — she is usually depicted playing the “veena” and holding a book. Saraswati is worshiped as one of the prime deities in India, with a dedicated day for Saraswati Puja( puja means worship in Hindi). Personally, I am, a non-believer, someone whom Richard Dawkins would perhaps call a cultural Hindu, but I do find the metaphor of Saraswati quite fascinating.

Inequality among women ( Group A and Group B … refer A/B testing in the Design thinking methodology)

The Truth …..

So far so good. So if Saraswati is held in such high esteem, why then do we get to hear stories about the horrific condition of women in India? Why then do we hear the news of domestic violence and dowry deaths? Why then do we hear the news of rapes? Why then do hear the news of female infanticide? Why then such massive inequality between men and women and also between the women in group A with those in group B ? In the picture collage above, which pictures do we believe? The ones on the left or the ones on the right? What is the Truth? … well … the simple answer is … all of the above photos show the truth. However, different people would are most likely to have their own version of truth depending on what factors influence their thinking process — primarily the news resources that they follow or do not follow and the society in their immediate surroundings.

So what really differentiates the plight of the women on the left to the achievements of the women on the right? And borrowing a phrase from the discipline of User Experience Design and the Design Thinking Methodology — how might we add in a design intervention in to the society to catapult the women in Group A in to the strata of the women in Group B? How might we jump the class divide? How might we solve this WICKED PROBLEM? ( A Wicked Problem is a problem of a complex nature, which is neither closed ended, nor does it have an obvious and specific solution or solutions. The biggest test of the Design Thinking Methodology would then be in attempting to solve a Wicked Problem)

5 stage iterative Design Thinking process ( Image courtesy: Author)

Applying EDIPT to a Wicked Problem …..

Because my purpose here is to encourage everyone — be they trained UX professionals or non-UX professionals to benefit from the Design Thinking technique, may I quickly state here that DESIGN THINKING is a 5 stage iterative problem solving technique based on empathizing with the end-user.

Google Search page: ( 3rd January, 2017: SavitriBai’s 186th birthday)

SavitriBai Phule — The Natural Design Thinker and Wicked Problem Solver …..

Empathising with the problem: Being a smart woman and a victim herself, SavitriBai already had an advantage when it came to empathizing with the plight of women in her part of the world and in identifying the main pain point of the wicked problem of gender based inequality in India. Usually, this would require an outsider a detailed ethnographic study to get somewhat of a grip of the problem.

Defining the Problem: “Mali” in Hindi and Marathi means a gardener. Born in to a Mali community in the state of Maharashtra in India, she remained illiterate till her marriage to JyotiRao Phule. SavitriBai and JyotiRao Phule were a visionary couple who believed that educating girls is one of the fundamental blocks for the development and progress of a society, a nation and for the humankind in general. They defined the root cause of the problem of social inequality and many other evils as the lack of education, especially among women and people of lower caste in India ( Hindus have a caste based system of society).

Ideating for a solution: The Phules concluded that the antidote to the darkness and inequality was knowledge. The only way was to open schools that would be dedicated to educating the girl child. It was the only way to bridge the gap between the women in group A to the one in group B.

In 1852, Savitribai Phule opened a school for Untouchable girls which was a great challenge to take at that time. (Photograph from Wikimedia Commons)

Prototyping: After completing her primary education with the help of her husband, she enrolled herself in two teacher’s training programs (run by an American missionary, Cynthia Farrar, in Ahmednagar and another one at a Normal School in Pune). Post this, SavitriBai devoted all of her life to the education of the girl child in her native sate of Maharashtra. Along with her husband, she opened three different schools for teaching girls, facing abuse and stiff opposition from the very patriarchal society around her, who obviously opposed educating girls in the name of religion and culture, to serve their own evil ends. Savitribai was the first Indian woman to be the head teacher of a school.

Inequality among women ( Group A and Group B … refer A/B testing in the Design thinking methodology)

Testing: SavitriBai and JyotiRao did not live long enough to see the results of their ideation and prototyping stage. Considering the complexity of such a wicked social problem, this is quite understandable. For such problems prototyping and testing are a continuous and never ending process. The plight of the girl child and the status of women in general all over the globe, is still is far from what one would call equal ( for example America still has not had a female president). However, the success of their ideation and prototype, is quite evident from the observing the difference between the Group A vs Group B in the picture above, with the Group A being the women who have not been fortunate enough to receive education ( or quality education for that matter) vs Group B being the women who have received quality education. Such changes often do not happen over the course of a few months or years — not even a single generation … but several generations….

Image courtesy: AZ Quotes

Conclusion:

Comparatively speaking, if a girl child in India or anywhere in the world for that matter, is now in a better condition than what she would have been a hundred and fifty years ago, it is because she stands on the shoulders of giants like SavitriBai Phule and the likes.

The real Saraswati: Little school girl reading a book on a Lotus placed on SavitriBai and JyotiRao Phule’s hands: An Illustration by the Arup Roy from the HumanistArtShop on Etsy

Revisiting Saraswati …..

Understanding the metaphor: SavitriBai and Jyotirao, very wisely, understood the real meaning of the metaphor behind the idol or the image of the goddess Saraswati. They understood that a society can not really progress unless there are equal opportunities for various sub-groups of the larger society. They understood that there was really no point in worshipping the image or the idol unless of Saraswati, unless you educate living, breathing real Saraswati in your home. They identified the primary pain point of this problem, by understanding that knowledge is the only antidote to the evils that bloom out of ignorance and they ideated like pro-designers by understanding that educating and empowering the girl child is key to a better society.

They realized the Butterfly Effect that educating or not educating the girl child can have on the society. It is this empathy based realization that puts them in to the category of ace Design Thinkers and solvers of extremely Wicked Problems.

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If you want to read — How might we apply Design Thinking in to solving day today problems of our life — like parenting — please read — https://uxplanet.org/applying-ux-r-d-to-parenting-650ba37900cd?sk=9873f0f2001b7f38450198f314e7f0cc

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