KOLKATA GIVES TABLOID 4TH EDITION by KOLKATA GIVES

Bringing donors and NGOs together

Kolkata | OCtober – december 2014 `0/-

kolkatagives Saviour!

Father Rev. Stevens, Founder-Chairman of Udayan, explains his mission to mainstream the children of those suffering from leprosy in Kolkata Make-a-Wish FOUNDATION makes dreams come true!

The Kolkata chapter of

Make-a-Wish Foundation fulfills the wishes of terminally ill cancer patients by helping fulfill their wishes and in doing so helps a number of them lead the remaining part of their lives happily (Read full story on page 5)

There is one word for Paras Padma. Unputdownable.

Paras Padma is not your

run-of-the mill NGO. Ebadot Mondal and Tahmeena Parveen have dedicated themselves towards children suffering from polio, cerebral palsy, club foot, haemiplegia, muscular myopathy and similar disabilities. (Read full story on page 8)

The youngest headmaster in the world

At 16, Murshidabad’s Babar Ali must be the youngest headmaster in the world! Engaged in teaching hundreds of rural students in his backyard while other teachers complain about allowances and overtime. (Read full story on page 14)

PS Group is one of the most respected and trusted brands in India’s realty space, active in IT parks, green-building formats, hi-tech commercial buildings, retail space, hotels, education and townships. Promoted by Pradip Kumar Chopra and Surendra Kumar Dugar in 1985, PS Group has delivered over 150 world-class value-for-money projects.

“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” - Albert Pike

Editorial

After we started Kolkata Gives in 2013 to get donors and NGOs under one roof, we recognised the need to extend the one-off event into a movement. How would we sustain this month-onmonth? How would we establish the credibility among our selected NGOs to enhance donor confidence? How would we get donors to extend from cheque book-based philanthropy to resource transfers as well? The time then has come for us to appraise how our baby steps are breaking into a canter. Within a quarter of the Kolkata Gives event in October 2013, we started a tabloid

dedicated to philanthropy (the one you are reading now), which we believe is the first of its kind in the country. The principal objective of this tabloid is to network NGOs with prospective donors in a continuous way. This objective was born out a realisation: most donors didn’t even know that NGOs looking into specific areas even existed. For instance, a number of prospective givers came up to us with specific requests: ‘we have been looking to fund NGOs dedicat-

ed to education in underprivileged Howrah pockets addressing the children of families earning not more than H4,000 per month’ or ‘We wish to reinforce capability building in NGOs working with disabled children in suburban centres around Kolkata’. As a result of the Kolkata Gives event and the tabloid, our networking has increased to a point where we are able to navigate such requests to their logical conclusion. Besides, the tabloid has increased its print run: from a tentative 5,000, this issue has touched 60,000 copies – all free. The combination of completely sponsored issues and free circulation has obviated the need for a Circulation Manager

Best of all, the Koland sale of related advertising, moderating kata Gives movement overheads to a mini- inspired individuals mum. (Manish and Vishal Jhajharia as well as JP During the course of Agarwal) to promise the year, Kolkata Gives an investment of H4 was able to work with crore in a school for some NGOs and reinindigenous people in force their confidence. Kharagpur. These are some of the results: at the time of We conducted a cathe inaugural Kolkata pacity-building proGives event there were gramme for 12 NGOs two urban prima- in June 2014. ry healthcare centres (managed by Rural The second edition of Health Care Founda- Kolkata Gives comes tion, one of our select- by on 11 January 2015 ed NGOs); there are at the Park Plaza Hofour centres now. The tel, 10am to 7pm. Be result is that RHCF’s there! daily throughput of urban patients has increased from around 70 to an estimated 150 - an incremental 30,000 patients being addressed annually as Mudar Patherya a direct result of the Editor and ruthless Kolkata Gives move- networker ment. mudar@trisyscom.com

Kolkata Gives supporters Anamika Khanna Fashion designer

Gaurav Agarwala Neora Hydro

Pavan Poddar Poddar Udyog

Rahul Kyal Vinayak Group

Ravindra Chamaria Infinity Group

Siddarth Pasari Primarc

Arun Sharma ASP Private Limited

Ghanshyam Sarda Sarda Group

Piyush Bhagat Space Group

Rahul Saraf Forum Projects

Rishab Bafna Cherrytree Events

Utsav Parekh Smifs Capital

Avik Saha Saha & Ray

H P Budhia Patton International

Pradip Chopra ilead

Rajiv Mundhra Simplex Infrastructure

Ruchika Gupta Sanmarg

Vinod Dugar Rdb Group

B L Mittal Microsec

J P Agarwal Agarwal & Agarwal

Pradip Sureka Sureka Group

Raju Bharat Kenilworth Hotels

Sajan Bansal Skipper

Viresh Shah Manav Jyot

Bajrang Lal Bamalwa Nemichand Bamalwa

Jayanta Chatterjee Nnm Impex

R G Bansal BMW Industries

Raju Khandelwal Dhanwantary

Sanjay Agarwal Century Plyboards

Chittranjan Choudhury CDC Printers

Manoj Bhuthoria Hotel Lindsay

R S Agarwal Emami Group

Ram Ray Response

Sanjay Chamria Magma Fincorp

Debanjan Mondal Fox & Mondal

Mayank Jalan Keventer Agro

R S Goenka Emami Group

Ravi Modi Manyavar

Sanjay Jain Siddha Group

Kolkata Gives initiators Anant Nevatia is the brain behind Rural Health Care Foundation. The foundation aims to work for the uplift of economically disadvantaged people of society by providing basic primary healthcare.

Mudar Patherya. Garbage cleaner. Stock market analyst. CSR columnist. Corporate communications consultant. He believes that it is the small everyday instances of philanthropy that make the world a better place.

Pawan Agarwal is the director of N.K. Realtors and also the secretary of RECA (Realtors and Estate Consultants’ Association). Despite his busy schedule he is actively associated with different philanthropy projects.

Jyoti Vardhan Sonthalia is the promoter of JVS Securities with interests in sectors like financial services and real estate. He believes philanthropy is more than a side-interest; the service of man is religion itself.

Mukti Gupta, apart from running the NGO, also takes care of her family business as the Managing Director of Mukti Group (operations spread across the real estate, hospitality and entertainment sectors in E. India).

Saurav Dugar belongs to the promoter family of PS Group. a young and dynamic business entrepreneur, Saurav feels that interventions in the social work sector involve consistent dedication and active networking.

Innovator

Doctor and Samaritan

Dr. Plaban Das is a man with a mission whose vision is to extend primary healthcare facilities to remote villages around Darjeeling supported by the development of skilled professionals.

Dr. Plaban Das with his wards

inally a doctor who doesn’t just treat the ailing. He also trains the unskilled into becoming competent care givers so that they too in turn may address the challenging primary health care needs of rural India. Dr. Plaban Das joined the Darjeeling and Dooars Medical Association (Planters Nursing Home), the oldest private nursing home in Darjeeling, in 2007. It would have been easy for Dr. Das to fill in his usual duty hours

and go home. However, he dared to extend his ‘duty’ from the usual. For the last six years, he has assumed the responsibility of training school dropouts as nursing aides for free as his form of philanthropy. “After I joined the D&DMA,” says Dr. Das, “I realised that there were just not enough skilled hands and nurses, which was affecting the cause of primary healthcare in the Darjeeling district. This problem was compounded by the fact that nurses hailing from the hilly interiors of Darjeel-

Undaunted, Dr. Das turned the situation to his advantage. “My colleagues and I decided to train school dropouts as nursing aides, starting with the first batch of 12 girls in 2008 in remote areas like Rimbik and Tukdah. This was not a train-today-and-deploy-tomorrow course; it was a good threeyear training programme

“I was lucky to be trained by Dr. Das after which my life changed for the better.” - A 25-year-old employed nursing aide who was a school dropout

comprising theory and hands-on training at our nursing home,” said Dr. Das. This unusual initiative by Dr. Das has now translated into tangible results. The nursing aides trained by Dr. Das have been absorbed by the Planters Nursing Home and other nursing homes in Siliguri. Best of all, a number of the trained aides are self-employed. “I had trained one as a pathology lab assistant and she now works at Dharan (in Nepal),” said Das. For his commitment, Dr. Das received in 2010 an international award from the Royal College of Physicians (Spain) for human welfare in a developing country. “The award included 200 Euros, which was donated to our NGO, which in turn donated it to another Spanish NGO in Nigeria and was deployed to buy mosquito nets during a malarial epidemic,” said Dr. Das. It is interesting to see how

the movement expanded. In 2009, Dr. Das visited Barcelona for an endoscopic intervention upgradation course, where his Spanish musician friends and he started an NGO called SOS Darjeeling, mobilising funds through concerts. “My Spanish friends came to Darjeeling where they surveyed the condition of health care services in far-flung villages. The result was that we created satellite units manned by paramedics and resource persons connected online with a nodal nursing home supported by ambulance services in emergencies. We expect to launch open such units in Rimbik and Tukdah as well,” said Dr. Das. Information extracted from an article that appeared in Kalimpong News, July 2014

Dooars and Darjeeling Medical Association Nursing Home 7, Nehru Road, Darjeeling - 734101

Anandan

How housewives created an effective NGO out of leisure time Anandan, an NGO in South Kolkata, was not started by individuals with TISS degrees. It was started by housewives with some time to spare.

hat started as a slum survey near Lake Market in Kolkata with seed money of H2,000 translated into 10 children being tutored at a member’s house. These tuition classes were different: they involved academics and extracurricular activities (dancing, singing and drama).

But as class sizes increased, school teachers started pushing the syllabus through, leading to students lagging in English across most Bengali and Hindi-medium schools. The teachers did what was only predictable thereafter - rote learning. This is where Anandan’s supplementary classes stepped in, patiently assisting, counseling and explaining. The students began to do better; word spread. Soon 40 students were coming to study and Anandan realised that it needed more space (and funds). Necessity is the mother of all progress they say; Anandan started operating from three centres and a vocational centre. Which is when Anandan se-

lected to take its agenda ahead. It would empower students through skill-building, convinced that when this happened, a virtuous cycle of prosperity would take over. Anandan did simple things well: started computer, tailoring and toy-making courses to help women become financially independent (and now has 140 students learning one vocation or another). Across the last decade-and-a-half, this initiative in empowering housewives has helped no less than a thousand individuals (students and women) turn their lives around. Most students are children of housemaids and daily wage earners (drivers, auto drivers and rickshaw pullers) so what this education has succeeded in doing

is replaced their hopelessness (‘Aaamar ki hobey?’) with aspiration (‘Aamiyo officey boshey kaaj korbo!’). Anandan has to its credit established a 100% pass record for those appearing for secondary examinations. One student now runs a tuition centre while studying in college and, best of all, over 80% of the students are girls! There are individual instances of success as well. Kakuli was married to a boy of her choice but soon her in-laws started demanding money. One day, her mother-in-law burnt her and she had to be hospitalised. When she recovered, she opted for an open school, prepared for her secondary Board exams at Anandan and now wants to

study to become financially independent! Anandan charges H20 per year so that students don’t take the service for granted; H100 per month is charged for computer training and H300 for six-month tailoring and beautician courses. Anandan has received funding from USAID and Global Funds for Children (USA).

www.anandankolkata.org

Anandan Centre 1: 15, South End Park, Kolkata – 700029 Centre 2: 44/1, Hazra Road, Kolkata – 700019 Centre 3: Prantik, opposite Khoyai Guest House (near Bolpur) E: indranibghosh@gmail.com

“It’s important that we give back to society regardless of our professions. When we support each other, we’re all a little stronger.” - Rhonda Hopkins

ing were not keen to come to Darjeeling to work. So even as there was a government nurse training facility in Darjeeling (no such private equivalent), they were largely absorbed by the government hospitals, as a result of which private nursing homes faced an acute shortage of nursing staff,” said Dr. Das.

Saviour! Cover story

Father Rev. Stevens, Founder-Chairman of Udayan, explains his mission to mainstream children of patients suffering from leprosy in Kolkata.

“We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” Winston Churchill

gerated concern for public health. And soon enough you find yourself living in a ghetto even as 95% of the people are immune to it and multidrug therapy is now a legitimate cure.

ather Ray Stevens was a successful businessman in Gloucester. And might have continued that way had he not volunteered with Freres des Hommes to work for the sick and poor in India in 1968. His relatives felt that this after all was to be just a twoyear sabbatical. They were mistaken; this has turned into a 46-year journey with Stevens working closely with innumerable volunteers, including Mother Teresa. What started as an 11-child Udayan in 1972 is now a 300-child NGO, the largest of its kind (addressing the leper community) in India. So what kept Father Rev. Stevens back? “A calling,” he says. “It wasn’t just that the people in Barrackpore were

suffering from leprosy; the problem was that they were also being treated as outcasts. It wasn’t just that they were poor; it was likely that they would remain poor because no one was interested in their lives. It wasn’t just about the individuals who suffered from leprosy; it was also about their children who were being stigmatised. It wasn’t just about the disease; it was also about the stigma which made those having it untouchables.” Talking numbers The gravity of what Father Stevens has been doing can be explained with a better understanding of the scenario in India. Let’s talk numbers: 70 per cent of those suffering from leprosy in the world are in India. The country still has one case of leprosy for every 10,000 individuals; in some urban slums and rural

villages, the incidence is five times higher; there are nearly 1,000 leper colonies in India. India now has the world’s highest burden of disease, accounting for close to 58 per cent of new cases in the world. In West Bengal alone, 11,683 new cases of leprosy were reported between April 2012 and March 2013. Interestingly, the nature of a leprosy counter-attack is shifting from anti-leprosy treatment to dealing with consequences, especially the prevention of disability due to leprosy. Imagine yourself as a victim of Hansen’s disease (leprosy). Your face is deformed – and you are left partially paralysed. Perhaps a couple of fingers (or hands) need amputation. Your deformed feet make it difficult for you to walk. Immediately you become a social outcast, the result out of an exag-

Working with children This is where Udayan comes in. Father Stevens works largely with the children of sufferers, liberating them from ostracism through education, vocational training and job placement, helping reverse longstanding inequity. His work speaks for itself: more than 300 families (including nearly 200 children) are below 12. The basic criterion for admission is that they should be between three and eight years and drawn from families affected by leprosy. “They are referred to us by organisations like Missionaries of Charity or others working with leprosy affected families. Our children are drawn from all religious communities,” Father Stevens says. About 5% of the students currently residing there actually suffer from leprosy. The average length of stay is about ten years. In most cases, the boys leaving the home find employment suited to their training and do not have to beg for a living, lifting their families out of poverty. The education building block At Udayangram, Hindi and Bengali-medium schools, staffed by six experienced teachers, cater to 150 students. The remaining children attend local Bengali and Hindi-medium schools. Besides, there are yoga, music, arts and craft classes as well. All the work at Udayangram (including gardening, washing clothes and dishes) is addressed by children. Udayan’s work doesn’t end

Udayan’s ambassadors Dominique Lapierre, litterateur: Contributed his entire royalty from City of Joy to Udayan. Leonardo, former Brazil and AC Milan footballer: Provided training to the kids for free. Shamlu Dudeja, kantha revivalist: Works on women’s empowerment and livelihood generation Steve Waugh, former Australian cricketer: Contributed towards setting up the entire girls wing at Udayan, which is presently sheltering 100 girls for the past 15 years.

there; it has a placement cell whose responsibility is to place students with other organisations. A number of girls who were married off early by their parents are now engaged in academic graduation, some are doing dressmaking courses and others have been enrolled at ITI Durgapur. Another student went for training in tractor mechanics at Tractors India Limited, another is working for ONGC. “In the secondary and higher secondary results of 2012, two of our students did well; one wants to become an engineer and the other intends to take up nursing,” says Father Stevens with pride. All these achievements helped renew a covenant made 43 years ago and in the process touched the lives of more than 6,000 children from leper colonies in and around Kolkata. www.udayan.org

Udayan Sewli, P.O. Sewli – Telinipara, Barrackpore, Kolkata 700121. E: jstevens063@gmail.org

Tribute

Make-A-Wish makes dreams come true!

“The time has come to revive communities” Avik Saha explains how Kashipur School in a village 30 minutes beyond Kolkata is engaging in a ‘syllabus’ that extends from the conventional.

The Kolkata Chapter of Make a Wish India Foundation makes a difference to terminally ill cancer patients by helping fulfill their wishes.

Take the case of nine-yearold Akash Pradhan who expressed a desire to fish. Since the doctors did not give him much time to live, this was considered a ‘rush Wish’ (needing fulfillment within 24 hours). “Because of his deteriorating health, we could not take him to the nearest pond but set an aquarium beside his bed for him to fish in it, says Ms Chanda. “Then a miracle happened: Akash lived for another 18 months!”

90 minutes with Sourav Ganguly for young Sumit Kumar

Greicius did not die in vain. The terminally ill child inspired the creation of a Make-A-Wish Foundation, which has now become the largest wish-granting organisation in the world. The organisation extended to India in 1995, when Uday and Gita Joshi took their son Gandhar for leukemia treatment to the US (the bonus a visit to Disney Land). Make-A-Wish Foundation® arranged for Gandhar’s wish to be fulfilled; he visited the place where ‘everyone is always happy’ before he peacefully passed away. The Joshis could have clicked their tongues and moved on. Instead, they returned inspired. They would extend this wish fulfillment option to other terminally ill children. What started as a dream has now extended to 11 offices across India granting almost 3,500 wishes each year. The Kolkata arm of Make-A-Wish India Foundation started in May 2011.

The principal driver of the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Kolkata is Shakuntala Chanda, who balances her day job with Make-A-Wish Foundation responsibilities, supported by Tata Medical Centre, Calcutta Medical College, Institute of Child Health, Netaji Cancer Research Institute and Saroj Gupta Cancer Centre & Research Institute. Empowering children On the one hand, it might appear that Make-A-Wish Foundation merely addresses the wishes of terminally ill children. On the other, the reality is that its work is empowering children to fight their illnesses harder (based on a 2011 Wish Impact Study). Health professionals indicated that the wish experience complemented treatment; patients felt better and complied more readily with treatment protocols. Some parents and medical professionals even described the Wish experience as a turning point; 89 percent of doctors, nurses and health professionals surveyed indicated that a Wish experience could potentially influence ‘Wish kids’ physical health; 99 percent parents reported that the Wish experience gave their children increased happiness; 96 percent said that the Wish experience strengthened their families.

Engagement So how can individuals associate with Make-A-Wish Foundation? This then is the big picture: Each year more than 100,000 children are diagnosed with life-threatening conditions (cancer, thalassemia and HIV). If even a fraction express wishes that are escalated to Make-AWish Foundation that would entail a budget of around H2-2.5 lac each month. “This then is only the beginning,” says Chanda. “There are more areas to be explored and hundreds of more lives to be touched.” www.makeawishindia.org

Make A Wish Foundation Behind Gateway Hotel GE 129 Rajdanga East, Kolkata – 7000107 O: 9831474142 E: info@makeawishindia.org

The rationale for such a school. Essentially to recover a lost sense of community. Through this school we are trying to protect the environment. We are trying to help people recognise their strengths. We are attempting to preserve the environment. The effectiveness of the strategy. Very effective! For some good reasons. At the school you have access to more than 1,000 students. It is my experience that students, being less cynical than adults, generally

The way ahead. We cater to 1,000-odd students in our Kashipur location. We need to commission more such holistic schools pan-India that not only provide formal education but also knowledge in how to preserve the environment, utilise resources prudently and leverage strengths. This then is clearly an idea whose time has come. The challenges being faced. We have a library (500 square feet) on the Kashipur campus comprising books on literature, social sciences and the environment. We are looking forward to donations (kind and cash) to enrich the library and widen the dispersal of knowledge. Avik Saha is also engaged in refurbishing Ashabari (home for the mentally challenged) and has invested in a genetic research laboratory in addition to practicing law in Kolkata.

Kashipur Kishore Bharati Vidyalaya Village Kashipur, District South 24 Parganas E: kkb.vidyalaya97@gmail.com facebook.com/pages/Kashipur-Kishore-Bharati-Vidyalaya

“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” - John Holmes

hristopher James Greicius dreamed of becoming a police officer – all his life. This term ‘all his life’ might imply that Greicius died old. He didn’t. Greicius succumbed to leukemia at just 7 in 1980.

Or take the case of fouryear-old Mohammed Farhan Apurva, who had reached a point where no medicines would work. Farhan desired to meet Salman Khan. Indigo Airlines sponsored his ticket. Salman took Farhan in his arms, invited him for a shoot and performed stunts for him. Farhan returned delighted! Or Sumit Kumar (8) who desired to meet Saurav Ganguly and spent 90 minutes with the former Indian captain who presented him a bat before leaving.

Tell us about the Kashipur School which was started in 1988. I am a part of the Community Revival Foundation, an organisation in Kashipur, which is a village about 30 minutes from Kolkata. We helped start the Kashipur School. From five students, the school now caters to around 1,000 students supported by 34 teachers. Apart from teaching the usual subjects (English and Maths), we provide vocational knowledge in agriculture, fisheries, life sciences and practical geography. We also started educating students in environmentally relevant subjects like composting. One of our unique initiatives was enhancing awareness about tree transplantation to counter deforestation. We uproot endangered trees and plant the elsewhere. When seen from this perspective the school represents a bridge between rural realities and global priorities.

buy into emerging dynamics faster. When they buy into an idea, they can be effective evangelists. They can go back and transform their families. Besides, you provide these students with a deeper appreciation of the agricultural wealth at their disposal which makes it possible for them to explore better practices, enhanced yields and superior farm profitability. As a result, the benefits of the work we do today will become visible a few years from now and will most easily manifest in a decline in migration. Which explains the theme – regrouping a lost sense of community.

Crusader

Anoyara. Our Malala. Trafficked at 12. Global Girl Hero at 18. The story of a daring counter-trafficker

this to the family as well.” “If we find them running away with a child, we drag them to the village centre and tie them up.” A 15-year-old group member says, “We children once raided a wedding and stopped a family from marrying off the child.” “Everyone from Maulvis and Brahmins to village heads and the police listen to us now.” After each rescue, she organises a children’s party whenever a trafficked child returns to Sandeshkhali, singing, dancing and playing from morning till evening. Anoyara is now studying for her graduation in a local college, the first from her village to do so. Anoyara Khatun – From being trafficked to being a counter-trafficker

O “Fundraising is an extreme sport!” - Marc A. Pitman

ne would associate counter-traffickers to be hardened policemen, committed NGO chiefs and international agencies.

Anoyara from Chhoto Askara, a village in Bengal’s most trafficking-prone belt, is a breath of fresh air. She was born in 1996, the youngest of four siblings — three sisters and a brother — and lost her father when she was five. Her mother worked as a cook to feed the family. Anoyara was compelled to drop out of school when in Class VI. Soon she was trafficked to Delhi and forced into domestic labour. After a year, she The Malala Fund, which focuses on helping girls demand a right to education, tagged Anoyara as “#StrongerThanSocialIllslikeChildTraffickingand EarlyMarriage” and anointed her a “True Girl Hero”.

escaped. When she returned, she could well have slipped into anonymity. And that is where Anoyara’s story took an interesting break. From being trafficked, she transformed into a counter-trafficker. A number of things have helped transform her life into a case study of what courage, focus and persistence can achieve. At 13 (a year after her return from Delhi), Anoyara led an army of children across a canal at midnight, apprehended a child smuggler and saved a teenaged girl from being trafficked. Gutsy She blocked the path of former West Bengal Education Minister Kanti Biswas returning from a village in Sandeshkhali (Sunderbans), compelling him to accept the demand to build more village schools. Sandeshkhali now has 84 schools. She leads 80 children’s

groups across 40 villages in Sandeshkhali (groups affiliated to Save the Children and the Dhagagia Social Welfare Society-run multi-activity centre) with 1,600 members. She questions villagers on the whereabouts of children they married off or sent out with strangers to work. She says, “When you endure a lot of pain, trouble and misery, you take it as a challenge to overcome that. Adversity was my driving force. I realised that if I didn’t bounce back from my ordeal, more Sandeshkhali girls would go missing. It became a mission and a challenge to myself to put a stop to the exploitation of children and keep them from falling into the dangerous trap of trafficking or child marriage.” “Before reaching people in the villages, I had to convince my family to allow me to step out of the house. I reminded them of the pain they had gone through when I was away and how important it

was to get other families to realise the dangers as well.”. Most villagers asked, ‘What do you kids know? Who are you to tell us?’ Our advantages: Children always are the first to know. And a child will always listen to someone her age.” “In our village, people sleep by eight; children aren’t allowed outside. I managed to get out of the house, take some friends along, chased traffickers across the village, jumped canals and caught them. It changed the way elders now look at us.” First rule “Our first rule is to follow outsiders in our village. If we find them going into a house, two or three of us will playfully saunter in, hang around, eavesdrop and return to report to the group.” “If we feel that the person could be a trafficker, we explain to the child why they should not go with the stranger and then explain

Just another day An average day in Anoyara’s life means waking at 6am, praying the namaaz, tutoring 25 children and leaving for college. Back home by 4pm, she goes around her village checking on the children. In just five years, Anoyara has sabotaged nearly 85 trafficking attempts, helped reunite more than 200 children with their families and returned 200 dropouts to school. Anoyara was nominated for The International Children’s Peace Prize in 2012, an award that went to Malala the following year. In June 2013, she travelled to Brussels to represent Save The Children in a Global Partnership for Education conference. Her ambition is to learn English, computers and cycling. www.savethechildren.in

Save the children 41B/5 Gariahat Road (South) Kolkata 700 031

Vocational Rehabilitation Centre for the Handicapped

Making it possible for the handicapped to earn a living

Dr. Philanthropy wows even Big B!

J. Moitra helps transform destinies at VRC-H in Kolkata

months to one year) courses supplemented by free hostel accommodation, stipends, rural rehabilitation camps (comprising aid and appliances) and opportunities to participate in sporting events. Touching lives The result is that VRC-H has transformed a number of destinies. Take the case of Ajit Singh, who was orthopaedically impaired following a childhood accident. Following graduation, Ajit approached VRC-H for livelihood guidance. “Ajit was recruited as a trainee in our commercial unit,” explains Moitra. “He engaged in stenography and computer training while we prepared him for competitive exams. Ajit completed a year’s training with full credit; a year later, we conducted extensive practice, counseling sessions and forwarded applications to UTI Bank for executive positions. The result is that Ajit was recruited by UTI Bank in March 2006. The story of Ajit’s growth did not end there. He cracked the department exams and was promoted as Deputy Manager, then Manager at the alternate channel management centre (ACMC) in Axis Bank.

he assumption is that when someone is physically impaired, then the person is not job-worthy.

“The problem is that society simply writes these individuals off,” says J. Moitra, psychologist, VRC-H, a government organisation dedicated to making the handicapped employable. “The result is that most of these individuals are broken – not as much by their impairment as much by society’s rejection. Which is where institutions like VRC-H are bringing about a paradigm shift.” This is what VRC-H does: works patiently with the handicapped, identifies capabilities and embarks on rehabilitation through relevant skills. VRC-H focuses on inclusion through

“We believe that there is a growing need to sensitise employers and initiate customised training so that those initially dismissed as hopeless can be transformed into precious resources that headhunters generally seek,” adds Moitra. Holistic Over the years, VRC-H embarked on providing a holistic profile to the disabled. “We provide institutional training in collaboration with polytechnic institutes. We also provide adequate skills to facilitate the economic resettlement of those who did not receive formal education or could not enter formal training institutes through industry-acceptable competencies,” says Moitra. The result: short-term (less than three months) and long-term (three

Or take the case of village-based Abu Muchha, whose hearing was impaired. Following his Madhyamik Examination, Abu approached VRC-H for guidance, underwent programmes in toy-making and fashion design (recognised by the State Council of Technical Education, Government of West Bengal) before expressing a desire to be self-employed. The result is that Muchha underwent financial management training (Ministry of Small Scale Industries) following which he was recommended to NHFDC with a project profile and H50,000 in startup capital. The result is that Muchha now employs 37 people and was recognised as the ‘Best Handicapped Employer’ by the West Bengal Government a few years ago.

Vocational Rehabilitation Center for Handicapped Kolkata EN-81 Sector V, Salt Lake Kolkata - 700 091 O: 033-23576489 E: vrchkol.wb@gmail.com

And Big B just loved his punch line: “Desh ke sare doctor har roz ek patient ko muft ilaaj karein (Every doctor in the country should treat one patient for free every day).” Mukherjee has been charging H5 as fee per patient for 55 years! For patients who throng his Lalpur clinic-cum-pathology lab attached to his home, getting a reputable doctor to diagnose their illness for a fiver is a dream that comes true at this address. “They said they wished to interview me and highlight my profession across the country through KBC 8. Initially, I hesitated but finally agreed when they requested.” The crew shot for over 12 hours. “They were very detailed. They asked me questions starting with my birthplace and schooling to higher education and service life, and checked my certificates. They also asked why I charge only H5 for treatment,” Dr. Mukherjee said. Bluntly, the former head of pathology department at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi, then known as Rajendra Medical College and Hospital (RMCH), says he is unhappy when doctors, many of whom are his students, charge hefty sums to treat patients. “It is horrible. How much money do you need to buy a car and a house, I always ask my students,” he said. His patients, such as Rinku Devi, are thrilled that the short documentary on doctor saab aired on one of television’s most watched shows has made him famous. But, Dr. Mukherjee doesn’t crave the spotlight. He doesn’t need the trappings of fame either. “Treating poor patients gives me immense pleasure. I appeared on KBC, which highlighted my work and our noble profession, but at the end of the day, I just care about my work,” he said. Source: The Telegraph

“We only have what we give.” - Isabel Allende

The downside is that most people don’t take two things into account: that the individuals can easily be rehabilitated and that the individual with a physical limitation may actually possess outstanding intellectual capabilities.

an open employment stream across sectors - public, PSU and private. The result is that the organisation has forged a number of sustainable partnerships with corporates for training, followed by placement.

r. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the octogenarian general physician of Ranchi, seen on the small screen on Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) 8 in the 10-minute documentary after the regular contest, definitely emerged as the winner.

Focus on the disabled

There is one word for Paras Padma. Unputdownable.

Paras Padma is not your run-of-the-mill NGO. It is dedicated to the interests of disabled children suffering from polio, cerebral palsy, club foot, haemiplegia, muscular myopathy and similar disabilities. time, Ebadot and Tahmeena made sure that their educational requirements were not left unattended and even followed up once their stay at Paras Padma was over.

“When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.” - Maya Angelou

But there were roadblocks. The daily commute. Lack of finances. And finally, social stigma. “We changed our previous plan and decided to take care of the children till Class X. Our target was to give a good education to the physically challenged kids so that these children would become private tutors for other children in his/her areas, thereby continuing the virtuous cycle,” says Mondal.

n institution like Paras Padma is absolutely necessary and for good reasons. One, because of the sheer population density in and around Kolkata, coupled with the absence of institutions dedicated to the interests of the disabled. Two, a large proportion of the disabled population spend their lives resigned to their fate when a simple intervention could prove life-transforming. Three, a number of people simply cannot afford even basic support. Four, there is an entrenched requirement for institutions like Paras Padma that address the holistic interests of the disabled at a single location. Responding to a need Paras Padma opened its doors as a day care centre in 2000, evolving towards becoming an organisation addressing the interests of the disabled. Ebadot Ali Mondal, founder, explains: “We recognised that there was an intensive phys-

iotherapeutic requirement for the disabled children that could range from one day a week to all seven days. In the latter instance, where the children were required to come for seven days a week, it was virtually impossible to expect that their parents would be able to afford the cost or invest the time to get them without needing to miss or skip work.” There were other concerns as well. “The parents needed to be incentivised to keep sending their children for physiotherapy. That is when we recognised that for any lasting intervention to transpire, we needed to provide a residential facility so that the disabled children could be provided consistent physiotherapeutic care, which would accelerate recovery or arrest decline.” Thus, a simple idea like a day care centre evolved into a fullfledged residential facility. It’s difficult to grasp the rationale behind the existence of such an organisation without crunching numbers. However, fact remains that most

such estimates are imprecise. “We have encountered around 1,000 disabled children in the South 24 Parganas alone; the number of such individuals that we have not encountered but do exist would be considerably higher. Our estimate is that on an average every two out of ten homes have one disabled member,” says Mondal. Changing the game The numbers were unsettlingly high. What was even more unsettling was that no one seemed to be talking about it. Paras Padma, with Ebadot Ali Mondal, a former school teacher, and his wife Tahmeena changed the game. “After we set up the day care centre and the residential facility, we realised that we couldn’t just have children sitting and doing nothing. So we started a school for the disabled children on our premises,” he said. Initially, Paras Padma began as a project, where children stayed for a couple of years and underwent physiotherapeutic sessions, after which they returned home. During this

The Mondals left no stone unturned to make sure that the children got admitted to government schools. They convinced the school teachers to help educate the children despite that they would not be able to come to school daily but would only appear for their examinations. Consequently, they developed one big classroom, appointed five teachers to run the facility from 11am to 4pm (Monday to Friday) and came up with uniforms to make the children part of a bigger whole. “Today we are happy that our children are doing as well as other children in primary and secondary government schools; some of our alumni are in colleges or high school,” says Mondal. Integrating forwards Rather than approach an institution based in Majerhat to provide the children with prosthetics, Paras Padma integrated forwards into the manufacture of calipers itself (braces, ankle foot orthosis, knee ankle foot orthosis, gaiter, splint, special chairs and artificial limbs). This meant making a number back and forth trips - for measurement, fitment and collection – redundant. “Originally, each caliper set costs H7,000 at the company

from where we bought them. Even that was not as much of a problem as the fact that since the product needed to be customised, the turnaround time for caliper manufacture would be four months and then seek a replacement every six months. It was proving to be daunting not just from a logistical perspective but also from the financial perspective. Which is when we asked ourselves: why not manufacture the calipers in-house?” The result is that Paras Padma was able to shrink delivery from four months to 15 days; it was able to provide calipers at an eighth of the actual cost. “We now possess the capacity to go up to 500 calipers a year and over time we have developed the capability to make sophisticated artificial limbs on our own,” says Mondal. And finally, in 2009, Paras Padma started an out-patients department for walk-in patient as well, which now addresses the needs of nearly 1,000 patients each month, providing them with seven-day diagnostic and medicinal services for a nominal H25. There is one word for Paras Padma. Unputdownable.

Positive transformation Bikash Adak, a physically challenged child, who received physiotherapeutic care at Paras Padma in 2011 is now an assistant technician at the orthopaedic workshop. Najma Khatun, a victim of cerebral palsy is now a BA student at the Sushil Kar College near Champahati.

Paras Padma Village: Makrampur, P.O Kutina, P.S Sonarpur District 743330 South 24 Parganas

Manovikas Kendra

“Helping others became intrinsic to my ‘privileged’ Marwari existence.” Sharada Fatehpuria, Founder and Director, highlights the activities of Manovikas Kendra, a centre dedicated to the holistic care of children with special needs. We faced a practical problem: since we were labeling these children as ‘mentally challenged’, which mainstream school would admit them? And that is how we were left to start an educational institution of our own to care for children requiring special assistance. Manovikas Kendra was established in 1966; we received autonomous recognition in 1974.

Sharada Fatehpuria in her office at Manovikas Kendra

What happened next? I enrolled as a psychology student at the Rajabazar Science College in 1957. We were required to complete a 100-mark fieldwork paper; I engaged in a study of ‘Interest pattern of Bengali and Marwari children in Class 8’. This was unusual most people select to do career-wise projects around this juncture. I visited many schools

of Kolkata, while classifying and segregating them under three heads – A, B and C – based on their relative affluence. This is what I found: 15-year olds were sitting in kindergarten or nursery, dismissed as paagal, who came to school because of free milk and bread. As a student of psychology, I suspected there was more to this. That is where the idea of Manovikas Kendra took birth. What did the research reveal? I took the addresses of these children, went door-todoor through para lanes, befriended neighbours and approached parents. Hesitatingly, they conceded that they thought their children were ‘mentally retarded’ and feared ridicule. So what was a 100-mark paper turned out to be life-changing. With this body of research, I went to my Head of Department and expressed my intent to do a PhD on children with

disabilities. He asked me to research a more encompassing subject, which eventually took the form of ‘Scholastic backwardness and learning difficulties in children.’ What was the result? I continued with my doorto-door visits and ended up interviewing over 200 families with disabled children. I even went abroad to research the subject. After five years of data collation, segregation and analysis, I took my oeuvre to the university and received a doctorate. But despite my commitment and credentials, the research remained academic; I wanted to make a difference at the ground-level (even though now I was a mother).

What kind of services does Manovikas Kendra offer? Manovikas Kendra caters to more than 750 children and young adults with special needs (except for those with visual impairment). The services offered include assessment and diagnosis in our out-patient department comprising a psychologist, psychiatrist, neurologist, paediatrician, speech therapist, physio-occupational therapist and special educators.

That is how I started a Child Guidance Clinic at Gyan Manch (Pretoria Street) in 1963. I was surprised: I was approached by several parents whose children were suffering from disabilities.

We also provide therapeutic services like early intervention and a toy library, multi-sensory therapy, hydrotherapy, physio/occupational therapy, speech therapy and one-tone therapy, among others.

techniques. Pallavi now has a sharp memory with a keen insight into international affairs. She helps in the school canteen and loves to colour, watch TV and listen to music. Remember, at one point she was given up as hopeless!

Similarly, Jayashree was autistic who took time to grasp things and would normally have been written off but for her unusual ability to differentiate ragas. She was adopted as a helper-teacher at our institute. She also learnt

What makes Manovikas Kendra different? We began the practice of printing a full-fledged annual report from as early as 1974, which in turn attracted quality funding and started a virtuous growth cycle! Sharada Fatehpuria is Founder and Director of Manovikas Kendra Rehabilitation and Research Institute for the Handicapped.

Manovikas Kendra Rehabilitation and Research Institute 482 Madudah, Plot 1-24, Sector J, Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, Kolkata 700107 O: + 91 33 2242 3305/ 2243 0941/ 42 F: + 91 33 2242 8275 E: mvkendra@cal2.vsnl.net.in

Success stories Manovikas Kendra has been behind a number of fascinating turnaround stories in the past. Here are a few: “Pallavi came into this world through a forceps delivery. When her parents discovered

that she could not sit when she was 12 months old, they consulted a paediatrician who referred the case to us. We assessed that Pallavi had a low IQ and severe retardation. We invested care, patience and special teaching

swimming and won gold in backstroke and silver in freestyle at the national competition for the specially-abled and represented India at the International Special Olympics in the US.”

“Your dream is to feel good; God’s dream is for you to do good.” - Shannon L. Alder

How did you get inspired to start Manovikas Kendra? My inspiration was my father. Before he set up any manufacturing unit, he would establish a school in the vicinity, especially for the children of labourers. He would wake me early so that I could go and teach the students and then attend my school. He would assess my day’s performance on the basis of my teaching performance. So, helping others became intrinsic to my privileged ‘Marwari’ existence.

What is Manovikas Kendra today? An integrated institution comprising an in-house bio-medical research and diagnostic centre, teacher training college and a centre for rehabilitative care. One of few such institutions in India providing a 360 degree service without external reliance (though we have forged global collaborations and engaged experts).

We also provide special schooling to 12th standard students under the National Institute of Open Schooling as well as pre-vocational and vocational training with the idea of mainstreaming these children and making them vocationally self-reliant. Manovikas Kendra also offers remedial teaching classes for children with learning disabilities/difficulties (dyslexia; dysgraphia, a writing disorder and dyscalculia, a mathematical disorder). Our learning classes include music, dance, art and craft, drill, yoga and games for children with special needs. We also run the Centre for Rehabilitation Medicine, which services children and adults with genetic counseling and DNA-based analysis for genetic problems.

Insight

Guiding patients at Bangur Hospital

“You have not lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you” – John Bunyan

Subroto Mazumdar explains how government-run Bishnupur Clinic and Diagnostic Centre is pioneering a number of healthcare interventions.

What is your background? I opted for a voluntary retirement scheme from the pharmaceutical company that I was working for in my late 40s and got involved with the Bishnupur Diagnostic Centre to do something that would benefit the world. Around that time, our NGO received an offer to start a ‘May I Help You?’ counter at the MR Bangur Hospital, the first time that such a counter was being considered at any government hospital in West Bengal. The responsibility to spearhead this initiative became mine. Why would manning a ‘May I Help You’ counter be challenging or be considered philanthropic? The reality is more complex than the name might lead one to believe. At a place like the MR Bangur Hospital, which is probably the largest government hospital in South Kolkata, most patients come from rural districts. When they reached the hospital, they are completely disoriented - they

did not know where to go, which doctor to meet and were clueless about how to get admitted. Worse was that these poor rural patients were ruthlessly exploited by dalals (touts) within the hospital premises. Over time, these touts dictated everything – from what bed you got, to what time the doctor would come to see you and what kind of medicines you would get. So effectively, it was not the skill of the surgeon or the potency of the medicine that mattered, but what you paid the tout directly determined whether you were going to survive or not. What was your initial experience? I started as a single-person intermediary – without a chair and table. The first thing that I did was to go and introduce myself to all MR Bangur doctors. The initial intervention was random: patients came, I interceded and I introduced them to some of the doctors that I had established an acquaintance

with. I worked 8am to 9pm seven days a week, assisting 70-80 people every day and helping them cumulatively save around H4,000 a day that would otherwise have been paid to the dalals. The word got round to the superintendent: complaints were beginning to decline. When the visiting Shastho Bhavan representatives perceived the positive impact, they insisted that I should be provided with additional hands. Four months after I started this facility, I won a big victory. I was provided a counter and a microphone. What was the next step? I did something that was fairly simple but had never been attempted - I got the relatives of the patients to directly interface with the doctors as part of an organised initiative. The relatives usually had a number of questions to ask the doctors; when they talked across the table, most questions were resolved instantaneously. But more importantly, the word started doing the rounds that the doctors actually cared about the patients. When it came to serious cases, I would work with the doctors and ensure that the visitation rights of patients were upheld. Whenever the families were in dire straits, one would act as a comforter. The hospital began to recognise that the intervention was succeeding; it increased

our manning to the point that we needed a second 12hour shift; we moved to two counters after a year. There was always a lot of work to do: check whether the floors had been swept, whether the bed had been made, whether the kitchen systems were in place, whether the staff was in at the right time, whether the nurses were attending to patients on schedule. Initially, there was resistance; even though we were really best-placed to identify all the systemic loopholes, we were questioned ‘aapni key?’ How did the supervision professionalise? We bought in a mix of IT and terrain understanding. We had noticed that one of the areas most prone to corruption was the allocation of a bed to a patient. This was like getting access to tickets for an international cricket match; the one with the largest access to tickets was the one with the largest clout and hence the largest income and hence the largest interest to keep it that way. After having established our credibility over a year-anda-half, we were finally given the responsibility of managing the ‘BST’, which means that this was moving out of the hands of those who had been managing this for years and moving into the realm of an IT-driven consumer service. As an extension of this, we ensured that the patient

was promptly wheeled on to his or her allocated bed, was examined by the allocated doctor, had access to the necessary equipment, got food on time, was looked after and finally to the point that the patient was ready to be discharged into an ambulance that would take him or her home at a discounted cost. What is the outcome of this experiment? The experiment was deemed successful, with the result that a similar system was started at Medical College in late 2012, covering 1,500 beds. The government now intends to incorporate this across 19 districts in West Bengal. Who pays you? Bishnupur Diagnostic Centre gets H1,000 for this service from the National Rural Health Mission while BDC pays me a monthly salary of H4,500, which I give my driver. I fund myself through savings and my Chennai-based son who sends me financial support. Subroto Mazumdar is the founder of Bishnupur Clinical and Diagnostic Centre

Bishnupur Clinical and Diagnostic Centre Vill +P.O +P.S- Bishnupur Dist - South 24 PGs Pin -743503, West Bengal E: sanmaj2010@rediffmail.com

NGO focus

Durga pujo fund donated for a rickshaw-puller’s treatment Celebrations could wait, but not the treatment of a poor man on the verge of losing his leg to gangrene

o t i v a t e d by a simple thought, a pujo committee in Barasat donated a bulk of its budget to a rickshaw-puller who was not being able to treat an injury he received months back.

Barely 30 families of Barasat Nabapally Kathaltala were supposed to organise a Durga pujo for the first time with a small budget of H45,000. They had managed to collect H12,000, but once a member of the committee came to know about the ordeal of Bapi Chakraborty, a rickshaw puller residing in a nearby shanty, they decided to

donate the entire amount for his treatment. “We were excited about the pujo this year. We moderated the grandness of our event but we are not complaining. We are happy that we could help someone,” said Dr. Pradip Kanjilal, secretary of the committee.

“I am thankful to residents of Kanthaltala. It is because of them I got my leg back,” said Bapi.

readily agree to help Bapi. We are proud of all Kanthaltala residents,” said Suman Majumdar, another committee member.

“Bapi is known for his simplicity and good behavior. We were shocked to find him lying in bed with gangrene. We could not let him lose his leg without treatment. When the matter came up for discussion, everyone

Touched by the gesture shown by Kanthaltala residents, Barasat MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Barasat Municipality chairman-in-council member Kanika Roy Chowdhury came forward to also help Bapi.

Welfare Society for the Blind

“A computer program especially for the visually challenged” Jharna Sur, Principal of Welfare Society for the Blind, explains how the visually challenged can also dream of working for MNCs in the IT sector, among other achievements

For the last six years I have been with the Welfare Society for the Blind, working largely to make adults computer-literate. The students who come to us are graduates, post-graduates or passouts from schools seeking employment. The first societal reaction is that they cannot be placed: after all, they cannot see. So we provide

them computer training with JAWS software (Job Access with Speech), which is an open source screen reader application for Microsoft Windows that allows the blind and visually impaired users to read with a text-tospeech output. Has the program been successful? Absolutely! We have trained around 100 candidates in the last five years and presently have 62 candidates training on JAWS. A visually impaired person is only looking for an opportunity to lead a normal life. In this regard, our biggest challenge was to convince employers that they were job-worthy. There a number of successful instances! A young boy lost his eye sight in an accident and

came to us for counseling. I got him enrolled for computer training but after a few days, he stopped coming. After persuasion, he resumed, learnt how to operate the computer and is now working with an MNC! What are some of the other successful instances? Ashish Jha is a visually challenged young man (disability 75%) suffering from Retinaitis Pigmentosa in both eyes. Ashish did his schooling from Julian Day School and higher secondary from AJC Bose College in 2002. After his class ten examination, he lost the capability of reading under artificial lights. He completed his B.Tech from B.P. Poddar Institute of Management & Technolo-

A life less ordinary

small-town doctor’s daughter from North Karnataka marries an engineer, who becomes a globally respected billionaire. The doctor’s daughter becomes a multi-millionaire in her own right and — writing in her spare time — she also becomes one of India’s top-selling novelists. Murty is famously and determinedly unaffected by her wealth. She wears only a modest gold mangalsutra and earrings, and doesn’t have a single ring on her fingers. The conference room of the Infosys Foundation, the charity arm of Infosys, in Bangalore is extraordinarily Spartan and the furniture, ageing. The walls

time teachers preparing students for competitive exams; we have a counseling centre, a recording centre where candidates with visual disabilities can listen to audio books and a research centre, which provides students with information on jobs, vacancies and scholarships. I must also mention that we are sustained by the generosity of some companies for which we are deeply grateful.

Sudeshna Bhattacharya is a double MA who joined Welfare Society for the Blind to learn working with the computer and eventually joined the Welfare Society for the Blind as a trainer, counselor and role-model. Sudeshna now works with Wipro. Promod Prasad was visually challenged and underwent handloom training at the Geeta Basu Training Centre. After training, a loom was donated by the Welfare Society for the Blind, which helped him set up a unit at home and become financially independent through the manufacture of magazine holders, pencil stands and file covers. Now he can’t cope with the demand!

What are the other facilities that the Welfare Society for the Blind provides? We have an eye clinic, Talking Book Project (translates Bengali text into audio CD), training for SSC examination, mobility training to help the visually challenged use public transport, employment-enhancing communication and soft skills training, job placements assistance, yoga training (with Dhyan Foundation) and vocational courses.

What is your infrastructure like? Our team consists of 12 members; we also have part-

www.wsb.net.in

Welfare Society for the Blind P-102 Diamond Harbour Road, Kolkata 700 053 West Bengal O: +91(33) 2396-1121 E: wsb2@sify.com

Hamari Muskan

are bare except for two photos — of J.R.D. Tata, who first gave Murty a job in Telco, and Jamsetji Tata. A plaque given to her by the Dalai Lama is the only other decoration. “Money can give you certain comforts but money has limited use. And once you realise that, money becomes a burden to you. You donate it. Money is a heavy bag on your back and you should lead a simple lightweight life,” says Murty emphatically. But her literary efforts are only one part of Sudha Murty, who’s also a trained engineer and mega-philanthropist driving the Infosys Foundation. She says she has

been on the scene of seven national disasters; Infosys Foundation poured cash in to build more than 2,300 houses in Gulbarga after it was hit by floods. “If there are floods in Odisha, I am there,” she says. Besides, the foundation has built more than 10,000 toilets and donated books to more than 50,000 libraries. “My grandfather was a schoolteacher and he made us promise that ‘When you have money you must donate books to at least one library’. Of course, the concept of money was so different for my grandfather,” says Murty. Source: The Telegraph

amari Muskan, an NGO focusing on mainstreaming children of parents engaged in the flesh trade, did something refreshingly different this Durga pujo. Over the last few years, it has trained children in livelihood-building and social skills while engaging them in early physiological intervention. These were done with the objective to provide these children with a level playing field. In 2014, Hamari Muskan convinced members of a residential society to permit these children to participate in the biggest community festival

(Durga Pujo). The children participated actively at two of the largest building society pujos of Kolkata - Neelachal Abasan and Diamond City West - where they performed a dance drama. The performance will be remembered for the way it helped break the ice with almost 800 families and pave the way for mainstreaming. Both cultural committees agreed to take this endeavour forward by drawing up a year-long schedule of events to keep the familiarisation process alive. - Source: The Times of India

“The goal for most people should not be to feel better but to get better at feeling.” - Shannon L. Alder

Can you provide us a background of the work you are doing? I have been a special educator for the last three decades, providing vocational training to the disabled. I was associated with the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy, which is a specialist resource centre working for the rights of people with disabilities, particularly cerebral palsy.

gy in Computer Science and Engineering. Gradually, his ability to read under natural light became difficult, so he passed with reading assistance from his sister, friends and mother (who would guide his fingers on the page to help him draw). To work on the computer he took the help of JAWS (screen-reading software); he is now employed with IBM looking into the area of IT Security.

Which NGO needs what Donations required

Paripurnata Halfway Home

Chhaya

Pre-used clothes for Goonj

Food for one resident for one month

H1,600

H1,500

Medicine for one resident for one month

H750

Psychiatric and psychological therapies for one resident for one month

H1,500

Spaying/neutering one dog, which includes pick-up, de-worming, operation and food (along with medicines) for the dog

H12,750

Occupational therapies for one resident for one month

H250

Feeding rice to 400 dogs for 10 days Feeding chicken to 400 dogs for 10 days

Unused medicines for RHCF Old newspapers for Iswar Sankalpa

“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” - Mother Teresa

Antara

One portable monitor (to monitor non-invasive blood pressure, pulse, oxygen saturation and ECG)

H50,000

One mini suction machine

H10,000

One cooler and drinking water filter

H50,000

Ambulance

H8,00,000

EPABX

H1,50,000

Sponsor a patient in the community- based care and support programme per month

H500

Sponsor for one patient’s monthly treatment expense

H12,000

Bed in psychiatry ward

H1,00,000

Society for Visually Handicapped Sponsorship of training of one deaf/ blind/ child with multiple disability (per month)

H18,000

Ankle-foot ortthosis (one pair)

H1,5002,000

Knee-foot orthosis (one pair)

H4,0005,000

Wheel chair (customised)

H5,000

Medicine cost per child

H1,200

A kit of sensory toys

H2,5003,000

Training of one adult person losing vision/ hearing (per month)

H2,500

Volunteers for the annual sports meet of SVH on 10th January, 2015

Support-services for one resident for one month

H1,200

Indian Society for Rehabilitation of Children Cost of part-sponsorship of one disabled child for one month

H10,000

Cost of full sponsorship of one disabled child for three months

H50,000

Contribution towards a building fund corpus (one ward/room to be permanently named after the sponsor)

H10,00,000

Humanity Hospital Medicine

H1 to 1.5 lac

Operation

H20,000 per patient (in total 20 patients need operation)

H15,600

Medical equipments

H10,60,000

H20,000

Day to day running cost for a hospital in the Sunderbans

H8,00,000

Food for large animals Cost for buying medicines for 350 dogs per month

H80,000

Food (per month)

H60,000

Cost for fodder for large animals

H5,000 per week

Buy more land (1012 cottahs) for large animals to graze and walk around

H12,00,000 (approx)

Offer

Indian Society for Rehabilitation of Children Cost of part-sponsorship of one disabled child for one month

H10,000

Cost of full sponsorship of one disabled child for three months

H50,000

Contribution towards a building fund corpus (one ward/room to be permanently named after the sponsor)

H10,00,000

Individual sponsorship to support a child per month

H6,000

Balanced diet per child per month

H2,160

Clothes and shoes per month

H150

Doctor’s fees and nursing fees per month

H2,980

School requirements per month

H500

Hygiene and toiletries per month

H100

Anandaghar

Samaritan Help Mission Took over a 150-year-old government school. The entire school property is in shambles. Need nearly H10 to 12 lac for reviving the school.

Educational need for 70 children for one month

H28,000

Dietary needs for 70 children for one month

H1, 36,500

Health and hygiene needs for 70 children for one month

H24,500

Educational and healthcare support for one child for one month

H6,000

Antaragram Support for treatment of destitute mental patients

Any amount

30 mats for yoga and meditation

H10,000

Photocopier

H75,000

Ambulance

H10,00,000

200 blankets

H20,000

Calcutta Rescue Three laptops for our schools and office-

H1,20000

Nutrition for patients at our clinics (per month)

H10,000

Cost for by medicines for our clinics (per month)

H2,00000

Payments for the weavers for our handloom project (per month)

H42,000

New Light Jhinuk – a playschool in Kalighat that prepares young toddlers to move to formal primary school education

H7,00,000

Dalit Shelter in Tollygunje for providing educational, healthcare-related and recreational services as well as a performing arts facility

H12,00,000

Interview

“West Bengal suffers from the ‘most suicide-prone state’tag” Suksham Singh talks about Lifeline Foundation, probably the only NGO in the city dealing with suicide victims

What kind of work is Lifeline Foundation engaged in? Lifeline Foundation is a registered, not-for-profit ‘suicide-prevention-centre’ based in Kolkata for the last 17 years. It is a chapter of Befrienders India affiliated to the Befrienders Worldwide (the UK). It works under the aegis of Samaritans (the UK) which started functioning in 1952. We have two free tele-helplines for people who are distressed, depressed or suicidal. We provide emotional support to combat the growing loneliness and stress in personal and professional lives of people, irrespective of their gender, age, religion or location. This free and confidential service is available from Monday to Saturday (10am to 6pm). We also offer a face-to-face counselling service at the Lifeline Foundation Centre, Kolkata Police Head quarters, Lalbazar, on the first and third Thursday of every month (noon to 4pm) and at the Alipore Correctional Centre (every Tues-

days from 10am to 1pm). The caller can also connect with us over the phone or through e-mail. Please elaborate on the training process for the volunteers. Lifeline Foundation, along with other twelve centres in India (Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Kochi, Pondicherry, Navi Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Secunderabad, Kozhikode, Vadodara, Trivandrum and Jamshedpur), follow the Befrienders charter and training module for volunteers. We have two helplines manned by around 45 volunteers at our Kolkata centre. We get around 15-20 calls a day. Our volunteer selection is stringent. We teach the volunteers to empathise and not sympathise. Some of the qualities we look for are: a volunteer should be a good listener and non-judgemental. We conduct a written test post which we have a three-hour one-to-one interview with the person. The minimum age of the volunteer should be 24 years. We conduct a three-day in-house

training drill in which we do role playing so that the volunteer is better equipped to deal with the calls. We also give them a ‘Dos and Donts’ manual, which provides them with a boundary which they cannot cross while interacting with the caller. The volunteer has to give four hours every week. These volunteer is trained not to ‘advise’ because we only hear one side of the story. We try to help the callers find their own solution. The callers are usually at different levels of risk – some are thinking about committing suicide, some have taken pills and called, some have made arrangements but having second thoughts. The caller remains anonymous; everything said to the volunteer remains confidential. Why is this work relevant to society? The World Health Organisation estimates that globally there has been a 45 per cent increase in suicides rate in the last 45 years. Kolkata has been topping the country’s suicide list for the last four

What are some of the challenges you have faced over the years? One of our biggest challenges has been visibility. Given the sensitivity of the issue, wordof-mouth publicity is not an option for us as no one wants to discuss their problems, let alone the fact that they’re seeking help because they’re suicidal. Getting the callers to trust us is a challenge for which our volunteers receive extensive training. We keep telling our callers that there will not be any breach of confidence. To reinforce this, we never ask for names. We only document their number, gender and reason for calling. Even during our face-toface counseling sessions, we only document the contact number when callers seek to make an appointment. Dealing with people’s mindsets is another issue. People don’t understand the concept of ‘suicide prevention.’ People view ‘attempt to suicide’ as a criminal offense. What they don’t realise is that the family also suffers. To help the families cope with the situation, we have created support groups but here also people don’t want to openly deal

with the problem. How did you counter these challenges? We aim to create greater awareness to help prevent suicide incidences through outreach programmes. Every month we put advertisements in English, Bengali and Hindi newspapers, giving our tele-helpline numbers and timings. Our telephone numbers are also accessible in the ‘Hello’ section, every Sunday in the Graphiti magazine of the Telegraph newspaper. The Metro Railways put our message with our telephone numbers at entrance and exit of each station. The CCTV on the metro stations shows our video clippings at regular intervals to lessen the rise of number of suicides at Metro Railways. Posters have also been put up inside metro coaches. What is the next step? Currently we operate only between 10am to 6pm. We want to be a 24-hour helpline available 365 days for those who need us, especially at night since most of these incidents take place at night. Our vision is to contain the number of suicides in and around Kolkata and help survivors, their families and acquaintances by befriending them. We also wish to promote networking and raise awareness regarding other NGOs so that more people can be benefited by their services. Suksham Singh is the Founder Trustee and Director of Lifeline Foundation.

www.lifelinekolkata.org

Lifeline Foundation 28B, Lake Avenue, Kolkata 700026 West Bengal, India Helpline: +91-33-24637401/ 7432

O: +91-33- 24637437 M: +91-9088030303 E: reach@lifelinekolkata.org

“If all of us in the world just shared love, just a little, charity foundations wouldn’t be needed.” - Cristiane Serruya

years. West Bengal suffers the ignominy of being the ‘most suicide-prone state’. According to a study jointly conducted by us and the Kolkata Police, the state recorded 11.9% of total suicides (1,35,585) in the country in 2011. Interestingly, the suicide rate, was the lowest in Bihar (less than 1%) last year. The study on suicide trends was based on facts provided by the National Crime Records Bureau. In Bengal, people of age groups of 20-45 are the most suicide-prone. Of the total number of women who committed suicide in 2011, 64% were victims of domestic violence. In such a scenario, raising awareness is of prime importance.

Young achiever

The youngest headmaster in the world

At 16, Murshidabad’s Babar Ali must be the youngest headmaster in the world! Engaged in teaching hundreds of rural students in his backyard.

“To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own.” - Abraham Lincoln

abar wakes at 7 to household chores. Then takes an auto rickshaw combined with a five kilometre-walk to the Cossimbazar Raj Govinda Sundari Vidyapeeth (where he is a student). Interestingly, it is what he does after school that makes him a hero. When every other student runs off to the playground, Babar walks to an afternoon school, where suddenly the student is now the headmaster overseeing 800 students in a dilapidated concrete structure.

“We used to play school-school, with me as teacher. My friends had never seen the inside of a school, so they enjoyed playing students. They ended up learning arithmetic and enjoying it”

So while other teachers complain about allowances and overtime, this village boy is actually making the world a better place. In the Bhapta neighbourhood of Gangapur village in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, Babar lives with three siblings and parents in a thatched house the size of a city kitchen. Babar is among the privileged of his

village, because, unlike most, he was able to go to school despite being poor. In Babar’s village, boys drop out of school to work as mechanics, day labourers, grass cutters and livestock herders; girls work as maid-servants, cooks and cleaners. Babar Ali felt that there was a future in changing this, which explains his initiative in starting his own school (Anand Siksha Niketan) at the age of nine. In fact, Babar’s school grew out of a game. “We used to play school-school with me as teacher. My friends had never seen the inside of a school, so they enjoyed being students. The result was that they ended up learning arithmetic and enjoying it,” explains Babar Ali. In 2002, the game was institutionalised; Babar started a school with eight students. Word spread; numbers grew and help began to come from different quarters: Babar’s teachers, Ramakrishna Mission monks, sympathetic IAS officers and even local policemen.

Babar kept pushing the envelope. His mid-day meal scheme banked on the rice that came from his father’s fields; later, this came from the government stock. Nine years later, Babar’s school has 60 regular attendees, over 220 students on roll-call and 800 students in all, with 10 volunteers teaching grades I through VIII. His little afternoon venture is now registered and recognised by the West Bengal State Government, which means that students graduating from Babar’s school are eligible to transfer to local schools. A fascinating experiment that proves that sometimes education can indeed be child’s play.

Anand Shiksha Niketan Bhapta Uttar Para, Netaji High School More, Post Office - Bhapta, Thana - Beldanga, Dist - Murshidabad West Bengal - 743421. M:+91 9007100960

Festival of philanthropy

Daan Utsav, India’s biggest philanthropic festival!

hen students of a free school for the visually impaired from remote villages near the Sunderbans were asked what they would like to receive from well-wishers, they reversed the paradigm. They said they would prefer to give instead.

This is precisely the spirit that Daan Utsav, India’s largest week-long festival of philanthropy in the first week of October each year, attempted to evoke. The brainchild of Venkat Narayan a few years ago, the erstwhile Joy of Giving Week (now Daan Utsav) transformed a number of fence-sitters into givers through a process of transparency, visibility and recognition. The good news is that Daan Utsav is attracting a number of converts. On Mahalaya 2014, Biju Nair, founder of NGO Premasree, took 18 of his wards to The Peace - Home for the Aged near Narendrapur, where they sang songs, recited poems and

encouraged dadus and didas to do the same for them. An 80-year-old was so overwhelmed that she volunteered to donate her eyes.

ed wishes of two NGOs many times over (with school bags and stationery for rag pickers to puzzles and toys for autistic children).

Vivada Inland Waterways took 100 less privileged children for a three-hour sunset cruise on the Hooghly accompanied by on-board activities like face-painting, fortune-telling, drawing, a guided tour and a discussion on river pollutants.

Visitors at shopping malls (Quest, South City and Mani Square) contributed over H100,000 to fulfill wishes.

The Rice Bucket Challenge at Avani Mall and four Shoppers Stop outlets helped mobilise more than 2,000 kilos of rice for the flood-affected in Jammu & Kashmir. Already, Daan Utsav volunteers have begun working on next year’s edition!

Tolly Club members addressed the needs of children associated with a small NGO.

Some 8,000 students of a dozen schools donated clothes to students of an NGO-run school and planted saplings.

Parents and teachers at Calcutta International School donated generously to an NGO caring for mentally-challenged adults

Wish trees were ‘planted’ across venues. Radio Mirchi listeners, for instance, grant-

ITC Sonar guests granted the wishes of numerous street children.

Daan Utsav E: info@joyofgivingweek.org facebook.com/ joyofgivingweek

joyofgivingweek

Interview

10 questions for Melinda Gates

Philanthropist Melinda Gates on the importance of contraceptives, her daughters and her growing optimism behaviour-change pieces of that. And we’ve [taken on] contraceptives and raised $2.3 billion. 2

1 You just turned 50. Did that change how you look at life? I used my 50th birthday to look forward and say, “I basically have 25, maybe 30 great years of working life left. What do I want to accomplish?” And so it means at the [Gates] Foundation, I’ve let go of a few of the science meetings. I trust Bill with those. I’m taking more meetings about women’s and girls’ issues and cultural

Are there any technological breakthroughs happening in the area of contraceptives? This is a field where we haven’t done much research in the last 20 years. One day we might be able to have a contraceptive that would dissolve, like a breath mint, that she’d be able to put in her vagina, and it will last, say, 30 days. Or it’s an implant that you can put in your arm that lasts three to five years. We’ve gotten those down to two very small rods, and after the London Family Planning Summit we have money, so we helped work with manufacturers and brought the prices down by half. 3 You were raised Cath-

olic. Clearly, you’re a big believer in contraceptives. Do you draw a line at abortion? The Foundation only funds contraceptives. We do not do

the abortion piece. But then again, we always try to work upstream. With contraceptives, you don’t put the woman in a situation where she needs to make that decision. 4

Last year you gave away about $3 billion. Do you worry that people think, “Well, the Gates folks have got this. What’s the point of throwing in my $20?” We try to always remind people that all the Foundation can do is take some experiments and some risks where the government can’t or won’t. We could spend all of the Foundation’s money just trying to solve HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. I try and get people to look at where their passion is and just start somewhere. 5 Do you worry about your children and your great wealth? You teach children your values, and you try to live those values out. My belief is that if you do that, they’re going to turn out O.K. I think some-

times with greater wealth, people get away from living their values for whatever reason. Maybe the wealth pulls them in or they start taking fancy trips. 6 What would you do if your daughters said, “I’m not interested in a STEM [science, tech, engineering, math] career?” I’d say, “Go where your passion is.” 7 Even if it’s modeling?

Well, I’d try to steer them in a different direction. That one would be tough for me. 8 You’ve been calling for more data on child brides. Given that even one underage girl married against her will is too many, why do we need data before we act? You have to know where child marriages are happening, and specifically what countries and what regions, and in what ways. That will inform where you go to do the work. Without data, I don’t really know how to act.

9 Does the world’s richest man ever unload the dishwasher? Actually, no, but he loads it. After dinner, we all do the dishes together. He likes to wash the dishes. He grew up with his sister washing the dishes. He will load, but his preferred thing is to wash. He does not like to unload. Or, we don’t make him unload - put it that way. 10 You often say that you and Bill are impatient optimists. As you’ve been in this philanthropy business for a long time, have you become more patient or less optimistic? No, I’m impatient. I want to get contraceptives done. I want to halve child mortality yet again. When you travel and meet people, you see that if they have that one tool, they lift themselves up. I’d say we’re less naive but more optimistic.

(Courtesy: Time Magazine, December 1, 2014)

Book Review: Redrawing India - Kovid Gupta and Shaheen Mistri

“When I grow up, I am going to join Teach For India. I will be there until I am 30. After that I will try and join the Indian Embassy. If I fail a second time, I will try again. If I fail after that I will just stay in Teach For India for my whole life.” – Khalil Mulla, Teach For India, student

Redrawing India by Kovid Gupta and Shaheen Mistri is a story about two things - education with entrepreneurship and how they can be combined to form an unassailable tool for ushering in a systemic change across the educational landscape of India. Consider the facts: India continues to have 2.27 million children out of school. India has made strides in primary school enrollment

but despite an initially high rate of enrollment, drop-out rates are high. In India, 4% of all children never start school, 58% don’t complete primary schools, 90% don’t complete secondary school, and only 10% of children go on to college. While others would have been awed into quiet acceptance by these realities Shaheen asked herself ‘What is the greatest life I can live?’ And thus the Teach For India campaign was incepted. Over the years, Teach For India has emerged as a gamechanger from being a fledgling lobby. Mistri and Co. have delved deep into the mire that India’s educational setup has sunk and comes up with the

awareness that the toughest part of educating India’s children is not teaching, but changing the mindsets of the people who believe that children from disadvantaged backgrounds cannot succeed. TFI is currently in five cities, impacting 23,000 children through 730 Fellows. Redrawing India invites its readers to join this movement, and like the title of the book, redraw India by advocating educational equity. Publisher

Random House Pages

Price

286

J189

“Didi, who is Gandhi?” “When I met my group of 12-yearolds for the first time, I assumed they knew some things that every Indian, affluent or penniless, should know. I felt like someone punched me in my stomach when they asked me, “Didi, who is Gandhi?” I was shocked. I once thought every Indian was brought up with some basic knowledge, but in reality, not all of us have the opportunity to learn even the most basic things.” – Anjali Sabnani, former Akansha Teacher and

Director, Education, Akansha “The Akansha teachers stood by their children in their darkest times. In one incident, an Akansha student was raped by her father and stood six months pregnant. Her teacher worked to ensure a safe delivery and the adoption of her baby. Just months after the trauma, she was back in school with another shot at a meaningful life.” - Excerpts from Redrawing India by Kovid Gupta and Shaheen Mistri

“Philanthropy should be voluntary” - Bill Gates

It is precisely with this vigour, that nineteen years ago, a young college girl walked into Mumbai slums and expressed her desire to teach the less privileged children who roamed the streets. This was Shaheen Mistri.

Pioneer

How a Kolkata family created a rich philanthropic tradition among its members

“A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.” - Jack London

Bharat Dugar highlights the refreshingly unusual ethic of the Kolkata-based Dugar family

How would you describe the family’s philanthropic tradition? It is an interesting story where some of our ancestors have actually demonstrated the discipline to work hard for the first 50-odd years of their lives and spend the remaining years of their existence in doing good for the world. While this is difficult to follow in today’s world, the truth is that we have banked on this tradition to inspire our children to pursue philanthropy in their daily lives. What is the family history like? My great grandfather Sampatramji Dugar was a simple generous person who would pay the lagaan on behalf of the entire Sardar Shahar tehsil to the Raja of Bikaner. My grandfather Sumermalji Dugar asked my father to donate his entire wealth towards an educational institution, which is now known as Gandhi Vidya Mandir (deemed an university under the name of Institute of Advanced Studies in Education). Thereafter, my father Kanhaiyalalji Dugar took sanyas at 50 to work for the

institute. He lived in a small hut, visiting nearby villages to help the needy, resolving that he would sleep on the floor. Then Gandhi Vidya Mandir was looked after by my brother Milap Chandji, who at 50 entered into philanthropy. Now Gandhi Vidya Mandir is looked after by other brother Kanakmalji who became a philanthropist at 50. How did the family’s philanthropic tradition get institutionalised? Through the Gandhi Vidya Mandir in the Thar Desert near Sardar Shahar, Rajasthan. My brother Kanhaiyalalji was brought up in Sardar Shahar (erstwhile princely state of Bikaner). Even though he was raised in a wealthy family, he was spiritually inclined and inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s faith in God, secularism and ‘vishwa bandhutwa’. When Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, he felt as though a supreme power ordained him to dedicate his life to mankind. In Matheran, Gandhiji blessed him in a dream while he was teaching young children in a hermitage. He consulted Acharya Vinoba Bhave and

other Gandhians in Wardha. Vinobaji said: ‘Spread light where it is the darkest, spread education where illiteracy is the highest’. Here was a man who had been born into luxury; he volunteered to give up luxuries, donated C5 lac, left his mansion, conceived Gandhi Vidya Mandir and stayed in a hut with his family for 20 years. What was a small school with three students grew into a university with thousands of students, spread across 1,200 acres. When Jawaharlal Nehru came to know about Gandhi Vidya Mandir, he called Kanhaiyalalji and donated C50,000. Today, this is the largest university in Rajasthan offering courses in education, IT, management, engineering, paramedical, biotechnology, science and humanities from certification to post-graduate programmes. How is it more than just a university? It is more than just a university, considering that it is the only university in Churu district (population 2,039,547 as per 2011 census). It is an established destiny-transformer. Some 53 villages are

served through village-libraries, dispensaries, mobile dispensaries, vocational training centres, agriculture and animal husbandry programmes, drinking water supply programmes and homes for destitute children. The facility provides its students (95 per cent rural) with an infrastructure enjoyed by most urban people - more than 40 laboratories with modern equipment, a 6,000 seat auditorium, cutting-edge technology, nine hostels housing 2,000 students, a 100-bed hospital, old age home and orphanage. This is the result: the literacy rate in Churu district increased from 34.8% in 1999 to 66.75% in 2011; interestingly, the female literacy rate more than trebled to 53.35% in less than a decade. Bharat Dugar is associated with Gandhi Vidya Mandir

Gandhi Vidya Mandir 71, Christopher Road, Tangra China Town, Near Beijing Restaurant Kolkata 700046, India O: +91-33-40686015

Private companies to skill youth

he West Bengal Government is set to rope in companies like Samsung, CESC and Berger Paints for skill-training and youth employability. “The State Government’s vision is to make West Bengal the ‘skill capital of the world,” said West Bengal’s Minister for Technical Education and Training Ujjal Biswas. Skill training in CAD/CAM has been launched in 62 vocational training centres with technical assistance from Siemens. Students in plus-two standards have been receiving training with assured opportunities for internships and jobs, the Minister added. “A skill programme on hospitality has been initiated at Kalimpong in the Darjeeling district. About 770 trainees have got placements in chains such as Café Coffee Day,” he said. “We have decided to set up 37 polytechnics and 92 Government industrial training institutes”, the Minister announced. Viresh Oberoi, Chairman, CII ER & CEO and Managing Director of mjunction Services Ltd, said, “The government and corporates must come together to train and skill young people waiting to join the workforce”. Umesh Chowdhary, Chairman, CII West Bengal State Council and Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Titagarh Wagons Limited, said last year. In September, CII signed four MoUs with Kolkata, Chandernagore, Durgapur Municipal Corporations and Hooghly-Chinsurah Municipality to train marginalised urban youths in various trades. Source: Hindu Business Line

Corporate Social Responsibility

Helping people put on a brave new face Mudar Patherya explains how the SREI-supported Acid Survivors Foundation of India dared to look where would not have

ASFI recognised that the subject needed visibility. It created relevant films in partnership with the Indian Railways and showcased them at public platforms like metro stations. It conducted awareness programmes in schools and colleges. Besides, it engaged with the best plastic surgeons and legal experts to offer tangible solutions.

Making a difference, one acid attack survivor at a time

hen was the last time you heard of an acid attack survivor tell her story? When was the last time you engaged with an acid survivor in any conversation? When was the last time you looked at the picture of an acid attack victim and did not flip the page in a hurry? Probably never. Which underscores the point that even within the sensitive area of gender violence there is an unspoken chauvinism; rape gets visibility and rightly so, but when it comes to physical disfigurement arising out of acid violence, the incidents get a small paragraph in small point size, consigned to the corner and seldom pursued enough to prompt the authorities into serious action. Perhaps the challenge lies in the evident nature of the problem itself. A disfigured face makes us uneasy; if we seek not to encounter the ghastliness of the impact, there is a possibility that we do not want to read about it either. The relative absence of a ‘TRP’ has, over time affected the relative newsworthiness of the subject, as a result of which people shake their heads, make the right sounds but when it comes to doing something about it, the intent is restricted to paper. The numbers are compelling. According to the Acid Survivors Trust International, a

charity based in the UK dealing with acid violence worldwide, there are around 1,500 acid attacks taking place all over the world each year. According to ASFI, around 518 attacks have taken place in the past five years in India. The highest numbers of attacks have been recorded in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal (descending order). There has been a 30% increase in the number of acid victims: from 80 victims (2010) to 104 victims (2014); 80% of the victims are women; most victims are below 18. The realities related to acid-induced disfigurement are compelling: it takes only acid worth H20 to disfigure a person for life; acid is available virtually in every neighbourhood market; unlike a number of crimes against women, which may not leave a physical trace over time, an acid attack can leave physical and psychological scars for life – to the point that the disfigurement is probably the first thing that people associate when someone even mentions the victim’s name. The reality is that until late 2010, there were no organisations addressing the critical needs of this subject in a professional manner. Which is perhaps just the trigger that the Kolkata-based Srei Group (comprising companies like Srei Finance and Quippo) needed to partner Acid Survivors Trust International (UK) to create Acid Survivors Foundation India

(ASFI), probably the first instance of corporate intervention in a subject generally glossed over in the country. ASFI selected to provide the complete solution life cycle – policy, coordination, advocacy, promotion, fund raising and external support linkages for attack victims. ASFI recognised the root of the problem lay in free overthe-counter availability of corrosive liquids. The organisation created awareness, which led to a prohibition in over-the-counter sale unless the seller maintained a log recording the buyer’s name, quantity sold, presentation of a photo ID and specifying the reason for procuring the acid. ASFI recognised that one of the challenges in addressing the problem was the sheer inadequacy of information that could translate into corresponding policy action. The result was that ASFI began to document instances of acid attacks by networking with treatment centres, media reports among others resulting in the aggregation of organised statistics for the first time in the country. ASFI recognised that when it came to documentation, acid attacks were generally classified under the broad head of ‘hurt’, ‘grievous hurt’ or ‘grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means’. ASFI worked with partner organisations, made deputations to women’s law commissions and the government, which resulted in acid violence be-

This then is the result: continuous support to 150 victims of the 500 reported acid attack survivors in the country. Making a difference, one acid attack survivor at a time.

Resolute Monica Singh’s face lights up when she talks about her dream to study fashion marketing at Parson’s New School for Design in New York. The 28-year-old’s flair for style is evident in how she is dressed — a smart skirt paired with a fitted black blouse and a scarf stylishly draped around her throat. What the scarf hides are the bandages from a neck surgery, the 43rd reconstruction procedure undergone since an acid attack nine years ago in Lucknow. Five goons threw a bulb of acid on her to avenge a rejected marriage proposal which burnt her torso and face. After an entire year in hospital in Lucknow and spending close to J50 lakh on reconstruction surgeries, she resolutely returned to Delhi to resume her studies. Monica chooses not to play the victim. Her energies are focused on her impending postgraduate course at Parson’s and how she intends to crowd-fund ($50,000) her way through it.

Acid Survivors Foundation India 18, Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata 700019 E: jtdirector.asfi@gmail.com

percent by which maternal mortality can be reduced by preventive care during childbirth

18.65

crore Indians supported non-profit organisations by volunteering their time and effort.

India’s rank in the World Giving Index survey out of 135 countries, going up by 24 places since last year.

percent of the younger generation in Asia who donate money towards international causes.

34.6

million Indians helped a stranger last year.

24.9

crore Indians donated to NGOs last year.

0.1

percent of India’s GDP in 2014 accounted for by philanthropy by HNWIs

3.7

billion dollars – estimated CSR spending in India following the formalisation of the amended Companies Act, 2014

0.6

percent, the fall in the proportion of people donating money globally.

“Never respect men merely for their riches, but rather for their philanthropy; we do not value the sun for its height, but for its use.” - Gamaliel Bailey

ing recognised as a separate offence under Section 326A and 326B.

Obituary

adhuram Bansal (1936-2014), a prominent philanthropist, passed away in September 2014. He was 78.

Apart from starting a business empire covering pipes, power transmission and infrastructure businesses, Sadhuramji was a committed philanthropist who supported a number of causes. He believed that effective philanthropy could be achieved in two ways. One, by actively participating in a particular area, and two, by funding those people who help people in whatever way they can. The result was that Sadhuramji helped establish schools, colleges and hospitals for the needy. He was the founder trustee of Heritage School, which now provides graduation courses for 7,000 students, and with Sri Sri Academy (as trust-

ee). He was associated with healthcare centres like Sankara Nethralaya, where he funded a cataract operation theatre. He also helped set up Anandalok Hospital, which provides one of the lowest secondary healthcare interventions in the city. Sadhuramji started the Seobai Bansal Charitable Trust in his wife’s memory, which fund the educational needs of the underprivileged. He was also the Founder President of the Friends of Tribal Society and Cultural Society for Tribals, which jointly started 60,000 schools for tribal children (614 years) focusing on conventional subjects and providing vocational training as well.

The NGO that I admire

“Kindness is still the best antidote.” - Richelle E. Goodrich

“I admire Udayan run by Father Rev. Stevens. I have worked with him and seen how his team and he have dedicated their lives to provide careers to slum children especially those suffering from leprosy (300 at last count). The important thing is that even though these children are from the slums, they have been treated with exceptional love and care as a result of which they do not feel they have been born poor. Rev. Stevens and his team have brought them up in a beautiful place, inspired them with the right values and helped mainstream them through employment opportunities. Best of all, these children have not turned their backs on their environment and parents as a result of which their connections with roots has been sustained.” - Shamlu Dudeja, founder of S.H.E

Sachin adopts Andhra village

a c h i n Tendulkar exhorted people to give an equal academic importance to boys and girls and advised men to shun alcohol and tobacco while adopting a village in Nellore district. “This is a model village which we are trying to create and it should set an example for the rest of the country ... This is just the beginning,” he said in Puttamrajuvari Kandrika village (adopted under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana programme). Tendulkar laid the foundation for the construction of H2.79 crore of developmental works (in the first phase), including a community centre, an aanganwadi (government-run women and child care centre) school with kitchen, a playground, waiting halls and toilets. The villagers took a collective oath on the occasion pledging to shun tobacco and alcohol. “As I say in cricketing terms, we are playing the first innings by providing various facilities and to look after these facilities and bring maximum results out of this, it is in your hand,” he said. “So, promise me that you will try your best to educate the next generation,” he said.

Cancer care becomes free for the poor in Kerala

he ambitious ‘Sukrutham ’ initiative was launched to provide free cancer treatment in Kerala for the poorest of the poor. The free treatment, available at five Government medical college hospitals and three other hospitals, will be extended to all 14 district hospitals. This service is presently available for below-poverty line card holders as well as those covered by the Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksha Yojna and the national health insurance scheme. The Government supplies drugs and consumables to the eight hospitals under the Sukrutham scheme. In phase three of Sukrutham, free education will be provided to children with cancer. “This is the first time that any State Government is attempting to provide free cancer treatment in the country,” says Health Secretary K. Elangovan. Dr M Beena, principal secretary in the Health Department, said the annual expenditure of the scheme would be upwards of H250 crore. There is a proposal to impose a new cess on cigarettes and a share of Karunya Benevolent Fund (earnings from the Government-run lottery business) and charging H10 a month from mobile phone subscribers.

“Kindness is a magical spell— performed by enlightened beings—meant to enchant hearts and lift weary souls that they might fly.” - Richelle E. Goodrich

his is the billionaire who set aside 25% of his wealth to help the needy. He rues his rough temper and his more than robust liking for cigars, whisky and food. Poverty and malnutrition move him, and for that he is setting aside 25 per cent of his wealth. Otherwise, little bothers him, says Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, 53, India’s most distinctive investor with a net worth of $ 1.15 billion (as of October 2013). “My pet project in life, about which I am doing nothing at the moment, is malnutrition. I also hope to give 25 per cent of my wealth on July 5, 2020, when I will be 60 years old. That would be roughly about H5,000 crore by that day. At present, I give away H15 to 20 crore in charity annually”. Source: Mumbai Mirror

“I’ve always respected those who tried to change the world for the better, rather than just complain about it.” - Michael Bloomberg

Book extract

The Name Is Rajinikanth really. There is only one rule for this activity: the answer has to be spontaneous. Pen ready? All set? Ok. Question time. 1 How many superstars do

you know who sleep on the floor, minus air conditioners, pillows, bed, comfortable cushiony bed sheets? 2

have a small exercise for you. You need a pen and an analytical mind to answer

ten simple questions. It is easy

4 How many superstars do you know who help the poor and needy with a little more than what is required and yet do not publicise it one bit?

and publicity as if they are burdenous packages? (Sub question: How many superstars do you know who are happy with a good old Ambassador car, with no automated windows and hitech central locks?)

der any circumstance, do not cheat others and are generous in praising their costars all the while giving them enough and more space on screen, demanding an equal footage to the others?

5 How many superstars do

8 How many superstars do

How is it that everything is still blank? Interesting isn’t it? Now fill it all with one name: Rajinikanth.

and prefer to stay in a basic lodge along with the film unit?

you know who don’t care/ bother about payment and are content with just H1,001 as token advance?

How many stars do you know who come out with a white beard, bald head, sans make up, sporting just a cotton kurta, even for an international function?

you know who despite multicrore offers refuse to endorse brands? (Ok, if any of you give Kamal Hassan as an answer, you get an extra point)?

3 How many superstars do you know who refuse luxury caravans and five star hotels

7 How many superstars do you know who hate adulation and shy away from limelight

6 How many superstars do

you know who have zero ego and zero attitude, and love having their snacks and tea at the roadside shop and dhabas just like any of us? 9 How many superstars do you know who call a spade a spade and has it in him to own up his vices, habits, and weaknesses and lead a transparent, open life? 10 How many superstars do

you know who refuse to lie un-

Publisher

Gayatri Sreekant Author

Om Books International Pages

Price

365

J495

Interview

“Something needed to be done to stop rural children from dropping out of school” Sanju Pal explains how RISE is focused on addressing the educational needs of children from the underprivileged communities in West Bengal through its literacy intervention programme ‘Yearn to Learn’ connecting students from the UK with children from rural Bengal – and the result was that a sum of £4,000 was allocated to DSCBV. The success of this school project led to setting up RISE in 2009 just before I started working at Accenture. While working as a Management Consultant I continued running RISE as a volunteer to build the organisation and develop Yearn to Learn, which is now our flagship programme in West Bengal. Visits to Bengal Growing up, when I came to Shondanga, I would be shocked by how children my age were years behind at school. Some of them would be dropping out - girls were being married off and boys would start working because school was seen as dispensable.

Sanju Pal doing her bit for the society through RISE Personal background I was born and brought up in London but have been coming annually to Shondanga (my father’s village home), near Krishnanagar, Nadia, from a young age. My parents wanted me to grow up understanding my Indian culture and heritage. I became a teacher in 2006 through the ‘Teach First’ programme, which trains graduates to teach in challenging school environments in the UK. I visited the Dhubulia Subhash Chandra Balika Vidyalaya (DSCBV) and discovered they had no assembly hall, no library and no sanitary facilities and thought this could be a real learning curve for students from the UK who probably grew up without an inkling of what was happening in other parts of the world. This is how the Enterprise Challenge came into being building global citizenship by

Yearn to Learn programme Through the Enterprise Challenge, UK-based students were able to hone skills and become young social entrepreneurs and mobilise funds to support the education of children in schools they were partnering with in rural West Bengal. In 2011, I began to develop a literacy intervention programme to fill the educational void that I had witnessed in Shondanga. Yearn to Learn was born that summer as a pilot with a group of 20 underprivileged students from two schools in Krishnanagar. It is a supplementary programme that brings innovative activities to the literacy education field as well as a supportive group of teachers who work closely with students (ratio of 10:1).

Results We strengthened our local presence with an office in Krishnanagar, which has been operational for the past year with six team members. We are presently active in five schools and supporting more than 150 students identified by their school as behind in Bengali and at risk of dropping out. We classify student standards as per our literacy parameters instead of the conventional age-based segregation. The results have been promising: there is a positive learning environment, we received a 100 percent enthusiasm from the children, school attendance has risen, children look forward to classes and remarkably the educational standard of siblings has also improved. And then there is the positive feedback from the parents. For instance, one of them said that ‘brishti porleo aami pathabo!’ The kind of challenges faced The big challenge was in getting students to stay two

hours after school, particularly when there is a conflict with private tuition, which we encouraged through our rich activity-based learning curriculum. We faced a challenge with attendance, which we countered through teacher-driven relationship building. We encountered issues with student self esteem which we solved through confidence-building, as a result of which our students now have the self belief to present in front of others, including at functions we have held with hundreds of guests – a major milestone achievement for these children. Parents were sometimes unsupportive of the programme (being largely uneducated themselves), which we countered with our operations team periodically visiting homes to speak to parents about the importance of education. The road ahead We are currently working on the launch of our 2015 Yearn to Learn programme and working to strengthen our operations and impact measurement. We aim to work with 200 students, develop our curriculum with more innovative activities, strengthen our teacher training and in the future we look to extend to other districts as well. We, on the basis of our home surveys conducted on every individual student, are trying to provide more holistic support to our students and their family. Being a small charity, to take our programme the next level we must first find the finances, manpower and support to provide our much-needed services.

RISE Founder: Sanju Pal 3 M.M. Ghosh Street, P.O. Krishnagar, District - Nadia 741101 West Bengal. M: 9046288377 E: info@rise-online.co.uk

“Rather than being a human, be a humanitarian” - John Wagonner

Rationale of the mission In West Bengal, more than 25% children drop out of school before 10. This can be attributed to a number of factors, including that the student-teacher ratio in classrooms can be as disproportionate as 85:1 in rural areas, which is much worse the national average of 33:1. RISE works with the most disadvantaged populations, with 86% of our students being first-generation learners and 85% of families living below H200 a day. Take the case of Sujon Sarkar, whose family lies below the poverty line and struggles to make ends meet on a daily basis. They live in a house that is washed away during the monsoons and needs rebuilding each year. His mother had been suffering from a terminal disease and subsequently Sujon stopped going to school to look after her. But Sujon was eager to study; this is where RISE stepped in.

Children would have to run errands during school time, there would be a loss of interest and the families would be under severe financial strain. It was my belief that the escape from this vicious circle lay in literacy.

Two sessions are held every week after school led by undergraduate teachers (21-22 year-olds) who we train and feel are cut out for this job because they hail from the neighbourhood and therefore require no extra motivation to support their local community. We have a feedback-based engagement with the teachers, we have session coaches monitoring their performance, and we recently recruited a Curriculum Director and invested in the development of wide-ranging learning activities (theory, board work, participatory learning and group learning). Each child’s attainment and success is tracked and reviewed against a literacy parameter framework that we have devised ourselves. Our programmes are growing and improving through stringent monitoring, assessment and innovation.

Insight

Bringing philanthropy to football The unusual philanthropy of Avenue Sammilani, explained in a conversation with its spokesman Chandan Pal Chaudhury

“One must be poor to know the luxury of giving.” - George Eliot

have in the city is pathetic – no grass, complete slush, undulating and in one word, a shame. What happens is that most of the budding players grow up thinking that this is our destiny and we can’t get anything better. The reality is that we deserve a world-class standard of grounds and we can actually get it with some simple coordination.

How is philanthropy connected with a football academy like yours? We are an organisation with a 10,000 square feet ground inside Rabindra Sarobar directly across Menoka Cinema. Our organisation was created by Ashok Guho (Babuda), a man who lived for football and football alone (recognised by FIFA in the Nineties for his commitment to the game). His vision: provide footballers on the social fringes with a platform to grow their talent. The result of his vision is that we still train kids (8 to 19 years old) every single day of the year (except the pujo holidays). What makes the club different? The vision of the founder – that anyone who even as much as steps inside Avenue Sammilani becomes an honorary member irrespective of whether the person considers himself a member or not. The commitment of the coaches (including renowned coaches like Biswajit Das who played for Mohun Bagan and East Bengal) whereby they provide completely honorary

training through the entire year. The nature of our operating model whereby we don’t charge any of the 350 students a single rupee for being trained. The fact that we don’t just provide training but also refreshment. The fact that we don’t address the needs of urban footballers but largely those from suburbs (Diamond Harbour, Midnapore and Canning, among others). The fact that we don’t just have the footballers coming to us, but send our scouts to the districts to look for talent. The result is that we have been able to retain the overall clarity of our vision: we live, eat and breathe football, without politicising it. What have been some of your achievements? We have produced some big names like Subhash Bhowmick, Sukalyan Bhattacharya and Prasanta Bannerjee who went on to represent India. Shanti Mallick (the only female footballer to win an Arjuna Award) has been with us since childhood and now trains emerging footballers.

Interesting model. How then do you manage your costs? We are not a moneyed club. Our annual cash outlay is no more than a few lacs. Our membership profile is largely salaried and over the next years a number of them are going to retire. However, our founder Babu Guho was right when he said: “Money is not the be-all and end-all. If we have made up our mind, then nothing can stop us.” The result is that our current president Tutu Bose provides us with cash assistance; the West Bengal Government Sports Council has been giving us a lac rupees every year and each senior player chips in with H100 per month. And here I must mention something interesting. One of the residents of our locality was so impressed with our work that he came to us with an interesting proposal. He liaised with Philips and Monginis to provide us with floodlights so that we would be able to play at night. Initially, we felt that the proposal, while interesting, was impossible. Why would the agencies invest in

Avenue Sammlani? But the incredible did happen. In January 2013, we finally got lights after 40 years, thanks to the assistance of Philips and Monginis. Then the same individual arranged for the curator of the RCGC to assist us with ground quality and through a process of sandblasting, we softened the ground, corrected the grass cover and enhanced its lushness. The result is that for first time in years, monsoonal rain has not flooded our ground. Now we expect to renovate our toilets and provide superior shower and changing facilities. What is the implication of this infrastructure investment? It is an irony that the city with the largest passion for football in India is also one with one of the relatively weakest in terms of infrastructural provisions for the sport. All you have to do is take a look at the city; at one level, there is a dearth of playing area not just for football but all other sports; at the other level, whatever we

Just think: the soil of Bengal is fertile and most grounds grow no grass! At Avenue Sammilani, what is remarkable is that we have been able to create superior infrastructure at a relatively low cost through voluntary contributions. It would be one thing to gloat over this; the message that we would like to send out is that we are willing to take in as many football trainees as the city wants to give us, we will not charge these students, and we are also willing to provide consultancy on how we commissioned the lights and curated the ground. How does the club intend to take the cause of the game ahead? One of the things that we intend to do actively is conduct coaching in the evening under floodlights for the benefit of all those talented footballers who are busy earning a livelihood during the day. A number of those footballers had been compelled to give the game up because there was simply no facility for playing in the evenings; whatever facilities existed were largely for the privileged few. When we get these footballers to come in at night, we expect to see a larger turnout, which we feel will be good for the game in the city. Chandan Pal Chaudhury is the Assistant General Secretary of Avenue Sammilani

Avenue Sammilani M: +91-9836911787 E: chandan.paulchaudhury @gmail.com

Gamechanger

NGO with a heart!

Of all the columns that I have done on the CSR programmes of various Indian companies, there is perhaps no story that I have found more inspiring than that of the Kolkata-based Manyavar, India’s largest ethnic wear brand, says Mudar Patherya the most inspiring in Eastern India.

care and medicines for thousands.

One, Manyavar could have considered setting up a captive health care facility to do public good; it recognised that it was best to engage with a credible organisation that had already invented the wheel (RTIICS in this case) whereby professional delivery would be ensured from day one – 99% success rate without economic prejudice.

Manyavar could have only been an appraiser of deserving cases; thanks to interfacing directly with prospective recipients, it claims to have developed an incisive understanding of diverse social spin-offs related to heart disease, which comprises a spurt in divorces when a child develops heart disease because the husband would prefer to escape his responsibility than grapple with an impossible reality.

Two, Manyavar recognised that one way of addressing the reality was in sending cheques to RTIICS for surgeries performed on under-privileged patients; on the contrary, the promoter of Manyavar set aside a day each month to personally interview prospective patients before selecting to fund their surgeries. Three, Manyavar could have widened its coverage to patients across all age segments; on the contrary, 75 per cent of its outlay is allocated towards the heart surgeries of children while the remainder is allocated towards those below 40 years of age.

Ravi Modi – From stitching sherwanis to mending lives

In just a decade-and-a-half, Manyavar has reinvented (hence, dominated) the space. Manyavar products are marketed from more than 350 exclusive brand outlets across 140 Indian cities. The company’s nearest competitor is a twentieth its size; the company enjoys a market share in excess of

45 per cent. The inference is that Manyavar is not just dominating its category; it is the category. And like all successful companies, the promoters at Manyavar began to look inward a few years ago: Was the company doing enough to make the world a better place? Doing for the world The answer was that while the company was definitely enhancing economic value for employees, franchisees, stockists and employees, there was a growing feeling that it could do a lot more for the world at large. The money was there for the spending but like a number of the affluent who seek to help, Manyavar was intimidated by the usual: what interven-

tion would maximise impact? Which NGO would be the most credible? How could one effectively appraise the deserving? Rather than be discouraged into inaction, Manyavar engaged in a small gamble. It figured some evident realities: there was a health care mismatch in Bengal between those who could afford and those who could not, heart disease was on the rise and even the Kolkata-based Rabindranath Tagore Institute of Cardiac Sciences was probably refusing more patients for financial reasons than it could accept. CSR Solutions From these realities, Manyavar (through Manas Foundation) cobbled together a CSR solution that is one of

Four, Manyavar could have asked for the RTIICS cost and paid up; on the contrary it worked closely with the RTIICS management to arrive at a suitably discounted cost that would stretch its funding wider. Deep insight It is interesting to see where a simple willingness to fund surgery can take the person (or company) willing to underwrite the cost. At one point, Manyavar was only a willing under-writer; today it claims to have emerged with one of the deepest insights into the state of health care (primary and rural) in West Bengal, which inspired it to commission a primary health care unit in semi-urban West Bengal that provides near-free medical

You would think that this was just a fleeting corporate engagement to earn some CSR brownie points. Think again. Over the last 30 months, Manyavar has most anonymously funded no less than 1200 surgeries; its prevailing average is at least one heart operation funded every single day in Kolkata; the company would rather fund ten heart surgeries to ‘celebrate’ a birthday in the promoter’s family than throw a lavish party. Manyavar demonstrated a lateral approach in growing a national business category where none existed; it is now carving out scale with similar resolve in an area marked by a different bottomline.

Manyavar A501-A502, SDF-1, 4th Floor, Paridhan Garment Park, 19 Canal South Road, Kolkata-700 015 O: +91 33 3190 5454, 09038045353

“Philanthropy is activism.” - Eli Broad

hen Manyavar ventured to create a business out of ethnic wear, a smirk went up. People got ethnic wear stitched from their darzee; nobody bought from an organised store. The result was no more than 100 store counters across India that actually marketed ethnic wear.

Holistic Manyavar could have said ‘We fund, period’ and walked away, convinced that its job was done; on the contrary, it recognised that a number of those who sought assistance survived on monthly incomes as meagre as H3000 as a result of which Manyavar ventured to provide vocational assistance, extending its engagement to the holistic.

Heroes Changing OUR World.

“When in doubt as to what you should do, err on the side of giving.” - Tony Cleaver

Trisha Dube Kolkata’s Trisha runs a successful Kolkata event management company called Inspirago Infinity. So what? This is what: she takes a portion of the profits of successful shows to support deserving NGOs (inspired by Kolkata Gives tabloid). Over the last few months, proceeds from her programmes were donated to NGOs like Mentaid and Hamari Muskan. Way to go! Contact: 8697222158

Ashish Dhawan You have built the most successful PE business in India. Your cashouts make for a generous pile. You are in your early 40s, so been there and done that. What do you do? If you are Ashish Dhawan, you transform the way India teaches. Dhawan, an alumnus of St. Xavier’s and St. James , is overseeing fundraising for Ashoka University, India’s answer to the Ivy League. He is looking to raise around H400 crore from businessmen, NRIs and high net worth individuals. For starters, Dhawan is reaching out to his own—executives at private equity and venture capital funds. More power to Ashish!

Ashwin Mehta Ashwin Mehta is a member of the Rotli Club of Kolkata. An organisation with the overarching vision of feeding the underprivileged. It addresses the food requirements of around 1,500-1,800 people each Sunday. The interesting part is that the sabzi is cooked by the wives of the members. A remarkable instance of how affluent businessmen address the needs of the disadvantaged each weekend. Contact: +91 9331062251

Shibram De The nearest girls’ school from Ketugram was 18 kilometres away. The government did not have a policy to buy land to build schools in rural areas. A school can be built on vested land or on plots donated by villagers. The district inspector of schools (secondary) had almost given up hope. This was when Shibram De, an unlettered 80-year-old farmer offered to donate 14 cottahs of land to set up a school for dropouts.

Deepa Willingham Even though Deepadi is based in California, most of her time and personal resources are dedicated to her school in Piyali (West Bengal). Through PACE Universal and the Piyali Learning Center she is meticulously propagating the concept of girls being educated (instead of married off early or sold into prostitution). Through her efforts she is determined to make PLC a poverty eradication prototype model that can be replicated. Contact: contact@paceuniversal.com

Sudhyasheel Sen Initiated by Sudhyasheel Sen, an advertising professional, Help-Portrait Kolkata held a series of events across Kolkata on the 6th of December, 2014. “We tied up with several NGO’s (Responsible Charity, Lights of Hope, The Hope Foundation and New Light) and a photography studio (Studio Pomegranate) to reach out to underprivileged kids and women from the community and gave out over 200 portraits to them. The sheer elation that we saw on their faces made us realise how powerful a simple photograph can really be” says Sudhyasheel. Contact: 9831404255

Ameeta Sen Ameeta Sen was involved in philanthropic activities since her schooldays; being a good communicator helped her approach abused children and women. The victims of domestic violence needed a proxy to voice their opinions. A friend involved with the All Bengal Women’s Union asked her to see what they were doing. As soon as she stepped into the ABWU office, she knew she had found her calling. Today, Ameeta Sen is one of the prominent voices on behalf of abused Kolkata women and children. Contact: abwuhome@ yahoo.com

Zarine Chaudhuri Kolkata’s Zarine Chaudhuri had a drama background and learnt mime in the US. So when Dhun Adenwallah, founder of the Oral School for Deaf Children, invited her to take mime classes at her school, she was more than happy. This one decision set into motion a sequence that led to the birth of The Action Players, the first Indian theatre group of the hearing impaired. For decades, Zarine led the cause of the physically challenged, providing them with an expression through theatre. Contact: 9831812153

Paromita Biswas Not every day does one come across acts of selflessness, but 69-yearold Paromita Biswas does not believe she is doing anything special. Very matter-of-fact, she says she’s just following her father’s footsteps. The scion of a zamindari family, she has donated 10.5 bighas of her family land in Dhaniakhali to set up a women’s college in the area. “My father, Prithish Chandra Biswas, had always believed that education alone leads to empowerment. I am only trying to fulfill his dreams.”

Supriya Roy Chowdhury Supriya Roy Chowdhury is the founder of Towards Future. The NGO has reached out to about 100 underprivileged children who are getting educational and medical facilities. There are around 30 rural women who are receiving basic education under their guidance. The NGO’s aim is to offer access to primary and vocational education, reduce infant mortality, improve health and hygiene and promote sustainable economic development and women’s empowerment. Contact: +919831630412

Pallab Kumar Mukherjee Pallab Kumar Mukherjee provides medical and educational facilities to the poor in the Sunderbans through PSAFL Speedmark Forwarding Private Limited. He started a free medical facility in Kumirmari attended by a doctor (once a week). Since people need to travel 90 minutes by boat to seek medical assistance, a speed boat ambulance was pressed into service. He is also instrumental in running a 20-bed hospital in Agrahati which offers OPD and basic treatment. Contact: pallab@ psaflspeedmark.com

Robin Mondal Started off as a tea vendor in Buroshibtala, where 40 per cent of the population generated daily savings worth H20. His big break came when he noticed an opportunity in dismantling buildings for real estate contractors and then learnt the ropes of the business to emerge as a real estate contractor himself. He started an initiative to pay back to his para and took it to the next level by building a residential facility for underprivileged children. Contact: behalaburoshibtalajanakalyan@ gmail.com

Pot-pourri Abused mother of Surplus food to the six plans shelter hungry - with an with jackpot money app!

Q: What does a 28-yearold mother of six want to do with the money she won on Kaun Banega Crorepati? A: Build a safe home for women in need of shelter.

oibheann O’ Brien and Iseult Ward established FoodCloud to bring the business community and charities together to reduce food waste and food poverty in Ireland. Using a smart phone app and website, FoodCloud makes the redistribution of surplus food as easy as possible, matching businesses with too much food, with charities that have too little. Following a successful pilot programme with 38 charities and 18 stores, the organisation signed a partnership agreement with retail giant Tesco, allowing for the rollout of the FoodCloud app to their 145 stores nationwide. Source: Time

he Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) is considering to support differently-abled students of its flagship MBA programme. The institute is in talks with Webel to set up a centre for differently-abled students. “The centre will aim at providing adequate support to the students, primarily from the perspective of academics. The centre will be jointly managed by IIM-C employees and Webel, which has expertise in handling issues related to this section of students. The contract with Webel is in negotiation stages. The centre will initially serve visually challenged students and subsequently cover students facing other challenges, too,” said external relations secretary and IIM-C student Partha Sarathy. Source: The Times of India

with other commuters in a long line for a bus, when a smartly dressed businessman cuts in line behind him. The interloper proves immune to polite remonstration, whereupon Edwards is seized by a magnificent idea. He turns to the elderly woman standing behind the queue-jumper, and asks her if she’d like to go ahead of him. She accepts, so he asks the person behind her, and the next person, and the next – until 60 or 70 people have moved ahead, Edwards and the seething queue-jumper shuffling further backwards all the time. The bus finally pulls up, and Edwards hears a shout from the front of the line. It’s the elderly woman, addressing him: “Young man! Do you want to go in front of me?” Source: The Guardian

n 2004, Meerut-based Ajay Sharma slid into coma for 15 days and once he recovered he says he “understood the importance of being alive and decided to dedicate my life for the cause of underprivileged children”. He relinquished his job at the Government Inter College and began teaching slum kids. Four years later, Sharma came across an abandoned HIV-positive child on the verge of collapse. Sharma tried to admit him to hospital without luck. Sharma did the next best thing. He adopted the child. Then another. Then yet another. Today he has 12 children, all HIV+. “We hope to have a bigger house someday where we can keep at least 50 such children,” he says. Source: The Times of India

ellal Hossain, a Murshidabad farmer, pledged his one-acre plot (worth H1 crore) so that a residential school could be built. “We don’t have a residential school within 20 kilometres of the village. It is difficult for children from farmers’ families to attend classes every day in the morning because they often have to work in the fields. Their studies are hampered. If they stay in hostels and among their peers, they can study uninterrupted,” said Bellal. Asked what prompted him to do so, Bellal, who owns five more acres of farmland, said there was only one government-aided primary school in the vicinity. “The high school is far away. One has to travel at least 5km to study in that school in Murshidabad town.” Source: The Telegraph

“Effective philanthropy requires a lot of time and creativity - the same kind of focus and skills that building a business requires.” - Bill Gates

Jumping the queue Digital soldiers to areth Edwards is standing the rescue

Man who adopted 12 HIV+ sons

Farmer pledges J1 crore plot for school

n Kashmir’s massive flood rescue operations, a group of digital volunteers - some based as far away as the United States and Singapore - emerged as unlikely heroes. The Twitter account, @jkfloodrelief, set up by the group, was among the foremost platforms curating and disseminating relief information, putting it on their handle and dedicated website www. jkfloodrelief.org. So useful was the information that even the Indian army and the National Disaster Management Authority acted on their updates. “Our goal is to update on priority needs for relief, donation collection centers, and donation transportation logistics for public awareness on what to help via donations, where and how, and therefore, avoid mismatching of what is needed vs what is offered,” said Hemant Purohit, a 27-yearold computational social scientist on crisis informatics at Kno.e.sis Center in Ohio, United States. The center has set up a dedicated ‘Twitrus event’ which identifies the most used hashtags and most active users, bringing their tweets together in one click. Source: The Hindustan Times

Swipe card and get drinking water

undreds of slum women in Kalikapur off EM Bypass were empowered to access potable water for free with ATM cards. “Finally I can assure my family with safe drinking water,” said Rekha, resident of the slum. This network will benefit more than 540 households (around 3,000 slum-dwellers). The project, titled WASH US (water sanitation and hygiene in urban slums), is an initiative of South Asian Forum for Environment (SAFE) sponsored by HSBC Water Programme. Rain harvested surface water stored in an adjacent pond will be treated at a solar water treatment plant. The plant has the capacity to produce 10 thousand litres of drinking water every day. A 24-hour ATM facility and three automatic dispensing units will now be an asset for the slum-dwellers’ community. “We had to cross the busy EM Bypass and walk for around 20 minutes to fetch drinking water from a tap. Crossing the road every now and then for getting drinking water was a risky affair. I am very happy that drinking water is right at my doorstep now,” said Sona Pandey, a Class-X student. Source: The Economic Times

Trapped commuter freed after Australians tilt train Dozens of Australians tilted a train on Wednesday to free a commuter whose leg was trapped between a carriage and a platform, with authorities praising their efforts as an example of “people power”. The man was boarding in Perth when he slipped and became jammed in the five-centimetre gap between the carriage and the station, operator Transperth said in a statement. The staff told commuters to get off the train and about 50 of them lined in a row along the platform to tilt the carriage away from the man so he could be lifted out. “It is the first time we’ve seen something like this happen,” Transperth spokeswoman Claire Krol said. “This is a real case of passengers of working together... people power are the perfect words to describe it.” Source: Hindu Business Line

…Without shame or ill will Sagar Pawar watches patiently as a man jogs past him on Marine Drive, Mumbai. Pawar works as a bus driver with Rizvi Springfield School in Bombay. His father works in the conservancy department of the municipal corporation as a cleaner. Recently, Sagar was informed of an ancestral house the family owns in Ratnagiri, near the picturesque coastal village of Ganapatipule. Pawar wants to convert this house into a shelter and school for homeless kids. With his meagre salary, minuscule savings and some jewellery, he can only muster a sum of about J100,000. It’s insufficient. Hence, on weekends he sits with a flex banner at Marine Drive or Pedder Road or other spots seeking donations for the same. “If people don’t have faith in me or don’t want to give me money just like that, I can offer them my services as a driver or as a masseur— I have done a course in that too. They can even ask me to run errands for them or finish their daily chores like sweeping their house, etcetera, and I shall do so without shame or ill will,” he says. Source: Open

“To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own.” - Abraham Lincoln

Fatima Khatoon, 28, was born into one of Bihar’s most backward communities engaged in inter-generational prostitution. She was trafficked at the age of nine. After six children and sustained abuse at the hands of her husband, she fought back to emerge as a role model helping women from backward communities stand up for their rights and bust trafficking rings. Fatima earned herself a passport to pursue her dreams in the form of a jackpot on KBC 8 — build a safe home for women in need of shelter within the home that she hopes to build for herself and her children. “With the money that I have won, I want to build a house where I can keep my children safe. I also want to build rooms for girls and women who have run away out of desperation, have nowhere to go or no one to seek help from. I will house them here and help them get proper justice,” said Fatima, who leads the Apne Aap girls programme in the Uttari Rampur red light area and organises women to fight for their rights and for their daughters to live their lives free of sexual exploitation. Source: The Telegraph

IIM-C to set up centre for the differently-abled

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