At St.Joseph's College

Yesterday we did a talk at St.Joseph's College, on 'Sustainability and Innovation'

This is a new SELCO initiative, launched with objective of sensitizing young adults to the development sector, the underserved demographic, their issues and possible solutions.

While all of us (atleast In India), are at one point or the other exposed to poverty, it's quite amazing how insulated we are from the realities of the poor. Sadly, the disparity seems to be only growing, and the apathy and ignorance in approach from the government keep from any sustainable solutions.  

The sensitization starts from first understanding how diverse their needs are; how rural poverty is different from urban poverty, how the definition of poor in itself needs more attention .......there is the Poor at income of Rs.10,000 to 15,000 pm, the Very Poor at income of Rs.6000 to 10000 pm and the Abject Poor at income of Rs.2000 to 6000 pm, but all clubbed into one bucket. Without the effort to understand and articulate needs, any schemes or solutions remain so only on paper.

Here are some numbers that might even surprise you                     

To enable an initial understanding, we did a role play, of us belonging to the underserved, and the students asking us questions. It was an involved and interactive session targeted at opening a window of thought. 

It was a first even for SELCO, and I was happy to be a part of it. An added nice was that it was at Diksha's college and she and her friends were part of the audience, it was students of economics and environmental science.

Another thanks sent SELCO's way, for yet another new and interesting experience.