MANAVA SEVA DHARMA SAMVARDHANI

Corporate thinking to run a non-profitable charity organisation - that is the uniqueness of this trust, formed by a group of former Chairmen and Managing Directors. This trust is attempting to create collective social consciousness among the public by networking existing NGOs, instead of creating a new one. With the trustees background in business, they plan to implement business skills like optimising output, money management and public management. The trust has three focus areas on its agenda; national awards for women social workers, finding corporate sponsorship and education.

The Manava Seva Dharma Samvardhini gives national awards annually to women who are engaged in social work. This award - the Gnanananda National award is given to create awareness among the public and provide a platform for people to interact with these individual who are "isolated acts of excellence". With this, they hope to create a ripple effect and in turn strengthen the organisation in terms of resources and manpower.

The trust also has an interesting idea in corporate sponsorship of social workers. The trust feels the social worker who is passionate about his work is hindered by economic pressures of his or her family. This they feel, can be solved by a symbiotic relationship with large corporate companies who can sponsor a few of these social workers. In other words, add them to their payrolls and then allow them to carry out social work of their interest.

The third agenda is to offer a relevant course in social work for those interested in pursuing social work as a career. The institute, named Centre for Social Initiative and Management (CSIM), started by the trust, will offer a one-year diploma in social work. This course promises to provide help in starting micro enterprises after coursework. The uniqueness of the course is that the students will be taught by social workers who have hands-on experience and will have half the duration of study as practical work outside the classroom.

P N Devarajan, one of the trustees, a chemical engineer from IIT Kharagpur, has worked as Group President of Reliance Industries and CMD of Hindustan Organics Limited among his several past assignments. He was instrumental in the forming of Manava Seva Dharma Samvardhini and is actively involved in its running.

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