Hello again!!
In the midst of our busy schedules, many of us think at times that we should contribute to our society or be a part of some sort of social program. And there are several ways one can contribute to the society and help the needy. People in jobs, who get less time, can become part of their firm's CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), others with availability on weekends can help the social organisations that shelter and educate the homeless kids, like by teaching the children, coming up with training activities for them etc. If however, you have a full time availability for couple of months, and you want to utilise it by doing something for the people in need, here is an inspiration for you.
Punit Shukla, after completing his MBA, had a couple of months in hand, before he joined a firm. He utilised this time to do good to the rural people by getting associated with the 'Swaniti Fellowship'. He took out some time and has shared his experience and learnings with us. Read to know more.....
Me: Hi Punit, please tell us more about you...
In the midst of our busy schedules, many of us think at times that we should contribute to our society or be a part of some sort of social program. And there are several ways one can contribute to the society and help the needy. People in jobs, who get less time, can become part of their firm's CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), others with availability on weekends can help the social organisations that shelter and educate the homeless kids, like by teaching the children, coming up with training activities for them etc. If however, you have a full time availability for couple of months, and you want to utilise it by doing something for the people in need, here is an inspiration for you.
Punit: Hi, I am basically from Bihar. I did my engineering from BIT Mesra (Patna Campus) and then I worked in ZS Associates for about 9 months. After that I went on to IIM Lucknow to do my MBA majoring in Finance and Marketing.
Me: What is Swaniti Fellowship? How did you come to know about it?
Punit: Swaniti Fellowship is a public policy fellowship offered by organisation Swaniti Initiative. The fellowship offers constituency development projects with the the offices of Members of Parliament or Legislative Assemblies. A single project might last from 3 months to an year. The fellows are expected to deliver analysis results, recommendations and, in most cases, implementations on the ground in the constituency of the M.P./MLA.
I already had some fledgeling interest in public policy work and it got nourished during my MBA course. I was looking for a similar internship during the MBA course but could not get one during the 1st year. But, then I came in touch with some friends and acquaintances having similar interests who told me about the Swaniti fellowship. The fellowship was also in sync with my MBA schedule as it started just after my MBA course got over.
Me: What was your role in the programme?
Punit: Every fellowship application offers some projects (with MPs/MLAs as clients) to choose from. Mine offered projects with Jay Panda (MP from Kendrapara, Odisha), Ajoy Kumar (MP, Jamshedpur), KamalNath (MP, Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh) and Srikant Jena (Minister of State, MP from Balasore, Odisha). I chose and was selected for the healthcare project in Kendrapara constituency of Jay Panda. The objective was to improve the healthcare of the coastal district which very high incidence of Malaria, Chikungunya and acute respiratory infections. Another big issue was access to public healthcare as the large district has only 44 PHCs (Primary Health Centres) to cater to the population of 15 lakhs.
As a fellow, I initially proposed some alternative solutions to my client out of which he seemed most interested in one specific idea of Mobile Health Units (MHU). After deliberating on the idea further, we chose to focus the entire project duration on deploying MHUs in the ground with all costs generated. The capital and operating costs for one MHU was around Rs. 1.5 crores for 3 years. I started contacting vendors and professional organisations running this service commercially. Sponsorship for the vehicle capital cost and operation cost had to be arranged. We focused on getting funds from private and public sector companies who had an active CSR (corporate social responsibility) history. So, almost the first 40 days of the fellowship was mostly fund raising - contacting CEOs/MDs of companies, meeting CSR heads, making presentations and forming agreements.
The last month of fellowship involved the ground survey of the district Kendrapara. We made an aerial survey of the flood prone region of Mahakalpada block which we selected as the pilot block for the 1st deployment of the MHU. HPCL became the 1st sponsor and soon we deployed the 1st MHU in 18 villages of the pilot block. MHU would ply in 3-4 villages daily providing free basic healthcare and distributing free medicines to the villagers at their doors. It is expected to affect around 20000 people per year.
Me: You must have faced various difficulties like with resources, infrastructure, working in teams and many more. Would you like to share these with us, and how did you tackle them?
Punit: Difficulty was faced mainly in fund raising. Mostly around convincing organisations about how effective the MHU idea is and why they should support such an effort. Getting access to top management was not too difficult as we leveraged the MP's office in this regard. But convincing the CEOs about the idea was the toughest of all. But, I think their anxiety and doubt about the project obviated away as we presented not just the benefits of the project but also how effectively it is going to be monitored. Their main concern of actual utilisation of their funds was taken care of by involving MP's office as the supervising and monitoring authority.
Me: How do you think the program benefitted you and the society?
Punit: The fellowship gave me a very good exposure of things at ground. A realistic idea about why firms do not want to increase their CSR spending, what are the priorities of an MP given his voter obligations and what voters prefer. This exposure has been unique in terms of knowledge about voter consumer behaviour and I don't think I would have got this learning from any other engagement.
The societal impact of the project is two pronged. The direct impact is obviously touching and effecting change in health of about 120 villagers everyday. A longer and indirect impact, we can hope, is a significant improvement in human development indicators of infant mortality, maternal mortality during childbirth and awareness and instilling of healthy behaviour in rural population.
Me: Who all can participate in such programmes? What are the required skills and how will they get benefitted?
Punit: Anyone below age 35 can apply for the fellowship. Interest and motivation matter more than specific skills in this type of work. More details can be found on www.swaniti.in
Me: Any message for the readers?
Punit: I am too young and inexperienced to give a message to the readers but I would definitely say that these 2-3 months have been the most exciting times of my life. Learning has been immense, especially from my MP Jay Panda. And the fellowship is not just for people interested in such work, but also for people who want to explore India, its governance, its people and to know more about the ground realities of Bharat.
Me: This is truely inspiring Punit. Your participation and contribution are admirable. This will surely inspire the readers and guide those who already want to do something for the people of our Country. All the best!
Related links:
www.swaniti.in
http://swaniti.in/about-us/fellows-2013/
Guys, if you also have some ideas on the ways we can help our society, please share!
Inspired by Punit's initiative ! Good to see MBA's thinking on the lines of social responsibility.
ReplyDeleteSmit, this is very informative. Good going :)
ReplyDeletePunit, Awesome work. I want to do something like this too!
Nitin, Amita - Its good to see that you guys are also interested in social initiatives. I want to spread the information and the experiences of the ones participating in such initiatives, please share if you know about some!
ReplyDeleteThanks Amita and Nitin. I hope the impact is same as we intended it to be.
ReplyDeleteAmita: You can apply for Swaniti but sorry to say, the deadlines for applications for the summer fellowships is over. But I encourage you to apply for the ñext spring fellowship. By the time, do visit the website to know more.