Sudbury Living - Summer 2008 - 14

photographS bY marg SeregelYi “You can’t SaY no to Starving people,” SaYS Shannon, daughter of naraSim KatarY (right photo). She helpS him with Some of the communicationS for project Kandwar. KatarY waS one of the people who Started SudburY 2001 which helped to Stimulate an entrepreneurial climate in a one-induStrY town. needed a Plan B in a hurry when the mines put thousands of families out of work. Much like he does now for Kandavara, Katary had a vision for the future, but he had to sell it to the people with influence who could make it possible. He conceived the first sustainable development plan for a North American city. The plan emphasized the need for creating an entrepreneurial climate in Sudbury. It sounds so simple now, but it was a hard sell 30 years ago. Katary was the co-founder, with newspaper publisher Michael Atkins, of Sudbury 2001, the group of community leaders who were determined to keep the lights on in the city. And then, he sort of disappeared. He was appointed to the Ontario Municipal Board in 1989, and for the next 17 years, he travelled around the province to attend OMB hearings during the week, returning home to his wife, Sally, and daughter, Shannon, in Sudbury on weekends. By the time he retired in 2006, he had been laying the ground work for Project Kandwar for several years. Impoverished Kandavara is located 55 kilometres north of Bangalore, the “silicon valley” of India. “It is a plateau not a valley,” says Katary, who explains that life has improved for many Indians thanks to the information technology, but not for the majority. “There are 1.1 billion people in India, 80 percent earn less than $2 per day.” Approximately 50 percent of India’s population is under the age of 25. The population of Kandavara is about 4,100, about half are dalits or ex-untouchables. Things are bad in Kandavara, but there are worse settlements. “It is not a slum by Indian standards,” says Katary. It took a while for the local citizens and authorities to trust him and not see him as a “jerk” from a foreign country. “You can’t go into a village as an outsider,” he says. So he sought the advice of the elders as well as recruited young people, because he did not want to be seen as a threat to the power structure. It also helps that he speaks the local language. One of the first projects was to rehabilitate a school in the community—the school his father had attended as a child. The school was built in 1845, and was so dilapidated that classes could no longer be held there. One of India’s preeminent citizens, Mr. Vishweshwaraiah, went to the primary school, and Katary was able to convince the managing trustee of a foundation in India, Anita Reddy, to sponsor the renovations. The school has become a community centre and has given the residents a sense of pride. Last fall two eye examination camps were held and attended by more than a thousand needy people. Both camps were undertaken free of charge by the staff from the well-known eye 14 Sudbury Living Summer 2008 sudburylivingmagazine.ca

Sudbury Living - Summer 2008

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