Reducing child labour and out of school children - A success story at Krishnagiri district

Normally, around 10 percent of the school going children get dropped out from the schools in rural areas, for various reasons, and mainly due to poverty. Such children are being exploited as child labour and their talents get wasted. Every District Administration in India has been empowered with various schemes and enough funds.

In addition, Sarava Shikshya Abhyan, National child labour project and UNICEF also support the district administrations for sending these children back to school. Many such programmes are not implemented well due to lack of initiatives from many of the District Collectors across the country.

In this edition, we are bringing out an exclusive interview with Dr Santhosh Babu, IAS, presently the Managing Director of Electronic Corporation of Tamilnadu ELCOT. In his earlier assigned as District Collector of Krishnagiri district, he ws very successful in reducing the child labour and school drop outs to the extent of 95 to 97%. According to Dr Santhosh Babu, (i) identification and tracking of such children (ii) offering convergence package of schemes to such families would solve the problems for ever. They have also developed a new website www.back2school.in for this purpose.


He also brought e-governance initiatives in the district for improving the administration and to reduce the corruption. The initiative like ‘Rural BPOs’ was also hailed by the various media. He was honoured with the ‘Best Collector Award’ in 2007 by the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu. Indian Express also recognized him as one of the 5 ‘Pride of Tamilnadu’ in 2008. Data Quest honoured him with ‘e governance champion’ of South India in 2006. In an exclusive conversation with me, Dr Santhosh Babu describes the success story of Krishnagiri district.

Please click to play to listen to his interview (20 m). The audio streaming will be smooth, if you have a broad band of minimum of 100 kbps. If the streaming is not smooth, please download the audio in mp3 format and then play..

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India Vision 2020 Project : Shri.Muruganandam is proud owner of Browsing centre now

Dear Friends

We dedicate this to our Guru Dr.Kalam, who ignited our spirits !! His dedication & energy drives every step of our action

A moment of joy flash our minds as we put this across to you all. India Vision 2020 partner groups worked together to benefit an energetic youth Shri.Muruganandam( Triuchy, TamilNadu) This is an excellent example of team work - WE ARE IMMENSLY proud to have accomplished this as a TEAM , ofcourse we say this will all humility.

A request arrives ! One day( we had a request fwd'd from Dr.Kalam (Incidentally recieved from Shri.Muruganandam seeking his help). This was about a youth differently abled wanting to do more in life. We could sense bubbling confidence in him !

Background of Muruganadam:

Muruganandam lives in a town called Samayapuram near Triuchy Tamilnadu.Till his first year of higher secondary he was ordinary. Then he started developing weakness and eventually restricting his movement laterally - Both hands & legs. But this determined lad though had to discontinue his studies learned some computers(which would later help him!!). The issue is also sort of genetic with his parents & now him. Was very unhappy with situtation, he mustered confidence & wrote a mail to Dr.kalam !

Into Action:

Medical examination :

Our first task was to take medical advise on condition and the cause. Our first reponse with Mr.Srivasan' s help came from Kaveri Hospital(Dr. Manivannan- MD of the hospital). He personally sent his team to examine , give us the status.

Planning :

After this our next step was to confirm the ground reality. Our partner groups did not hesitate one moment. They had the teams visit him and give us first hand report.Seeing all the feasible options, considering his skills, our cost analysis, existing business potential we decided to set up Internet centre. Was agreed by all & we plunged into further action.

Time to Execute !

After exploring all the options we decided to get second hand system. For multiple reasons mainly to test out waters and give Muruganandam the confidence in running the show. Then came Mr.Suresh Kamat(CEO,Laser Soft) who readily offered 2 Systems from laser Soft. Muruganandam did his part by registering for Internet, then searching for old cabins, getting network router installed. After month of work we all were able to pull off and Muruganandam now is a PROUD owner !! His well wishers/friends in Samayapuram helped him a lot. The main idea for sustainable progress is establishing local support structure. We were able to establish this in better way !Recently (Myself, Udhay &Ravi Visited on Nov 23,2008 to review the progress.

See the photos for yourself !
http://picasaweb.google.com/indiavisionezine/MuruganandamSuccessStoryOfIV2020Partners

Partners Involved:

SIAGM, Dream India 2020, India Sudar, YHM, Team Everest Not one partner showed hesitation at any point in time which I believe was hugely responsible for the completion !

Our Sincere & Special Thanks TO :

Dr.Manivannan - MD, Kaveri Hospital, Triuchy - FOr his ultra fast medical test response !

Mr.Suresh Kamat - Cannot thank enough as he laid the foundation by donating 2 computers. His team giving tough competition to their committed CEO !

Dr.A.U.RamaKrishna, for latest medical checkup done. His inputs were valuable. He will follow up on the research output for this treatment. For now there is no cure(ofcourse we believe in human spirit & quest !)

Mr.S.S.RajaShekar who referred Dr.Ram & also has promised further visit/help through rotract. Entire Team for their enviable DEDICATION !!

Mr.Srinivasan(Our moderator) who lead us through the whole process, giving inputs all through the way !This just the beginning , but would end the report with Robert Frost , for OUR JOURNEY WILL CONTINUE !!

Woods are lovely dark & deep.
But I have promises to keep
And Miles to go before I sleep ..
And Miles to go before I sleep ..

Regards

On behalf of India Vision 2020 team

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Mr. Senthil, Young SW Engineer- US return - doing great work like Building Hospital, BPO Biz and Learning Center projects at THENUR Village, TN

Dear All,

We salute the spirit of our great forces & fellow Indians who firmly stood behind Mumbai in recent unfortunate happenings ! Together we will show our strength - as one INDIA

We were excited while through an article from KUMUDAM Tamil Weekly Magazine on 12th November 2008 (issue). It is all about Mr. Senthil Kumar, doing an excellent work at THENUR Village, Perambalur District, Tamil Nadu. We had traced him quickly through Mr. Karthikeyan, who is Kumudam reporter and he is the author of that article.

I, Shiva and Udhay made a visit to meet Mr. Senthil at THENUR Village on 23rd November 2008, Sunday and it was an inspiring sunday for all of us.

Brief Introduction about Senthil and Payir.org

We were stunned to see Senthil's simplicity and enthusiasm, when we saw him at Trichy. He was standing in simple dhoti-shirt dress and a parcel (cotton box) received from Chennai for his BPO Biz, and then we started towards THENUR village. He is doing great job and please go through the below report.

Senthil was a mechanical engineer and working in Mumbai and then moved to IBM, Bangalore. He was very determined and dedicated to do something for poor and village people. In 1999, he decided to go USA for 5 years to make more money and come back to do something for village people and the best part is that he is on his way to achieve his goal.
In fact, he was a Technical Director in Detroit, USA when he resigned and decided to come back in 2004. Honestly, I don't know how many youngsters can do this.

The first fortunate people belongs to THENUR village chosen by Senthil, which is on Trichy-perambalur border, Tamil Nadu. His uncle donated some acres of land and he started an NGO called PAYIR with the help of his friends.

Firstly, Senthil wanted to give Primay Health Center to take care their health.

An outpatient health center with 2 beds, a laboratory and a dispensary has been successfully completed. The health center currently provides first aid and primary health care. Dedicated Doctor is appointed to take care of around 4000 families in that area. Basic health records of visiting patients are maintained.This also gives paramedical staff some hands on experience. Infact these local health workers are given fomal medic training.
Payir has contructed In-patient ward, but it is incomplete due to lack of funding. They need another 3 lakhs to complete in-patient ward, so that minor surgeries and deliveries can be taken care.

Learning Centre at THENUR Village

He has constructed a Learning centre near to Hospital Building. The major objective of the learning centre is to provide an informal education to children of the village (4 - 14) yrs. Emphasis is on imparting useful real life skill education which the children can relate to and put to quick use. For the children between 4 -9 yrs the main subjects would be tamil and mathematics.

In addition to the above the room will also serve a small library - providing newspapers, magazines and books.

BPO Business at THENUR Village

PAYIR started BPO center with 11 computers and few are donated by MRF Company. He is getting jobs from Chennai and he would complete the BPO assignments by village people with little education like 8th standard to 12th standard. Senthil got Broadband internet connection (2 mbps) to THENUR Village and that is another achivement.

Sewing Machine Project

Senthil discussed with few companies in Tirupur and trying to take another project for village people. He would bring materials with measurement to thenur village and will be stiched by trained tailors from the same village. In this way, he would create more employement to those village people. Looking at investment of 3 lakhs(10 machine x 15,000 + other seed capital). Infact he is looking at crating a business model to give back 8% back to investors

Self Help Groups

Facilitated by the interaction between Payir and the local villagers a self-help group has been formed by the villagers. This group has come together to self finance and run a small diary project. This group consists of both men and women, which is significant considering currently the village women are not part of any initiative outside their homes. Also notable is the fact that idea was conceptualized and brought to fruition by the villagers themselves, with Payir merely playing an advisory role.

Organic farming:

Payir runs an organic farm within the land donated to it. The main goal of the farm is learn, develop and train villagers on new/traditional environmentally sustainable agricultural techniques. Currently we have a paddy plantation, a coconut grove and a garden of herbs.
We have started producing coconut compost within the farm; this is being used to fertilize the grove and garden. We hope to shortly make this available the villagers for them to use and sell.

Material used and job creation

Most material used in the construction is low cost and environment friendly like earthen bricks, earthen tiles and thatching.

Most of material for construction was locally sourced - An all women's unit took up the brick making, using hand press machines, during course of construction. we visited the site and got hand first hand operation of the machine. Most of the labor for the construction came from the village

FUNDING FOR ALL THE ABOVE PROJECTS

We all know that Senthil would have needed more money for all the above projects.
Senthil has spent all his savings more than Rs. 40 lakhs and he is on his way to achive his goals in life. When we heard this from him - we felt that we are standing in front of a REAL HERO and an excellant human being.

Above everything, Senthil stays in that village and his house doesn't have electricity. He doesn't have any TV or music system. He has very simple cot leads his simple life along with village people and for them.

Why and How Senthil Chose THENUR Village
Thenur village is around 40 km from Trichirappalli, Tamil Nadu (need to go via Manachanallur) and it is a border village between two districts Trichy and Perambalur. Thenur is a typical caste-based village in Tamil Nadu where agriculture is the most important occupation. Thenur has a population of about 3500 belonging to some 13 different castes and at least 2 different religions - Hindu and Islam, predominantly the former. Going by the panchayat records, about 50% of the 550+ households fall under the marginal income group while at least 50 families fall below the poverty line. About 25% of the households are landless labourers - most of them either surviving on landed agriculture/ live-stock farms or dependent occupations and others work as stone breakers, well diggers, construction workers on daily wage scale.

Key challenges
- Lack of primary health care facilities and sanitation
- Very high school drop out rates
- Viable farming and agricultural practices, animal husbandry
- Lack of around-the-year employment opportunities mainly during non-agricultural seasons (or failure of rains) Water management - during rainy season

Current Requirements

1. Deploying teachers at few schools around those villages.

2. Funding to complete In-patient Unit (He needs around 3 lakhs to complete)

3. More donations to run their Hospital and other projects.

You can more information at http://www.payir.org/.
You can see all the photos at India Sudar blog at http://picasaweb.%20google.com/%20indiasudar/%20PAYIRORGTHENURVI%20LLAGE

India Sudar and India Vision 2020 platform are very much look forward to be a strong partner with Payir as we do with other organisations. It is our moral duty to support this extra-ordinary initiative !

Regards
K.Ravikumar
Bangalore

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A day with Dr Abdul Kalam - How he manages the day?

PodUiversal - Edition 50

We have always been wondering, how Dr Abdul Kalam spends his day. After coming out of Rashtrapathi Bhavan, he has become too busy. If you look at the site www.abdulkalam.com, you will find his speeches on a daily basis. He tours length and breadth of India and also frequently visits various countries.

Every speech he delivers is fully packed with so much of new information, data, etc. These speeches are now preferred documents for many students, researchers, corporate houses, etc. How does he manage the preparation of speeches?

In an exclusive interview for PodUniversal, Mr V Ponraj, Advisor to Dr Kalam gives the first hand account of a day in Dr Kalam's Office. Mr Ponraj is a scientist working in DRDO and is also part of the Technology Interface Group in Dr Kalam's Office. Mr Ponraj spends most of his day working with Dr Kalam and also travels along with him within and outside the country. He is also the Editor of 'Billion Beats' epaper published by Dr Kalam's Office through their site.

Please listen to his interview by clicking 'play' button. (The streaming of audio will be good in broadband of 100 kbps. If you find streaming flow is not continuous, please download this audio in mp3 format and listen) - 19 minutes



This podcast can also be listened at
http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857329

Right click to download in mp3 format and save to desktop

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Learning disability and Dyslexia - Pioneering service by Madras Dyslexia Association (MDA)

Indian former President, Dr Abdul Kalam is always talking about 'school drop outs' and is campaigning for developing their skills. Lack of awareness about 'learning disability' or 'dyslexia' is one of the reasons for not identifying great talents and potential in the children.

It is generally reported that around 10 to 15 percent of the children across the world suffer from learning disability or what is known as Dyslexia. These children find difficulty in managing the academic works. They may also be slow learners. They would score poor marks. In most of the cases, these children are branded as 'useless', 'poor performers', etc. by the teachers and parents. They are also given punishment.

These children are not intellectually weak. They possess different skills like music, sports, art, acting, innovation, drawing, craft, driving, etc. Many eminent people like Winston Churchill, Einstein, Issac Newton, Thomas Alva Edison and many popular hollywood actors were dyslexic during their childhood.

If these children are not identified and remedied, we will be guilty of losing great men of eminence for future. Many times, because of the punishment given by teachers and parents, such children use their skills in different way and may turn out to be criminals and anti social elements.

Edition 49 - PodUniversal

Madras Dyslexia Association (MDA) is a non profit voluntary organisation started in 1991, by the parents of such children to create awareness about this disability and to train the teachers to handle such children. In an exclusive interview for PodUniversal, Ms Lakshmi Radhakrishnan, Chairperson (Academic) of Madras Dyslexia Association speaks about this disability and the role of parents and teachers in handling such children. Ms Lakshmi Radhakrishnan is one of the pioneers in India and has handled thousands of such children and also trained hundreds of teachers. MDA is also willing to offer guidance to the NGOs who are working in education and rural segment.

MDA has their website http://www.mdachennai.com and they can be reached at mda.ananya@gmail.com

Please click to play the podcast interview with Ms Lakshmi Radhakrishnan in audio format. (For smooth streaming of audio, you need a broadband of 100 mbps. If you do not get streaming properly, you may download this audio to your desktop and listen through any mp3 player) - 16 minutes


The podcast may also be listened at
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Right click here to download the audio in mp3 format and save to desktop (11 mb)

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C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) - India's pride

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), is a Research and Development organisation set up by the Government of India. They have been contributing to the National Technological development silently. They are pioneers in building Super Computer PARAM in India, Garuda Grid Computing. They are also promoting open source softwares. They have released a Desi operating System BOSS, Indian version of Linux. They have also developed forensic software to help the Police officials to investigate cyber crimes.

In this podcast, we have interviewed Mr S Ramakrishnan, Director General of C-DAC. Mr S. Ramakrishnan, popularly known as Ramki is a pioneer in India in computer newtworking and grid computing. Even before the internet concept came to India, as the Project Director at National level, he was mainly responsible for networking educational institutions as 'ernet'. Now he is also closely associated with the PARAM PADMA, the next generation Super Computer.

Please listen to his interview by clicking to play (13 minutes)

(The streaming will work comfortably in the broadband of minimum of 150 kbps. If you find any difficulty, in the smooth streaming, you may download the wmv format (4 mb) and play in your windows media player)

You may also watch this podcast in the followig links

http://blip.tv/file/1404790
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Kaushik and Sriram have arranged more than 30000 units of blood to save patients

First October of every year is the "World Blood donation Day". On this occassion, we feel proud to feature two young men of Coimbatore, who are doing great job silently. .

Kaushik and Sriram, (picture above) residents of Coimbatore (Tamilnadu, India) have silently arranged more than 30,000 units of blood to the needy patients at Coimbatore in the past two years. Recently I had the opportunity of meeting them at Coimbatore and they were introduced to me by J Prabhakar (another social worker about whom, i will write in detail later).

Kaushik and Sriram have a list of more than 3000 quality donors from Coimbatore of all the blood groups and they are constantly updating the list. Besides, many college students are also supporting them in their endeavours. Beides, they also have the list of donars from Chennai and Erode (approximately 1500). You will be surprised to know that the entire database is stored in their mobile phone with the name of donors, contact number, blood group, when they last donated, etc. Sriram says, "We are using the mobile phone as our laptop".

They start receiving the calls right from the morning, requesting for a voluntary donor of a particular blood group. Within five minutes, they are able to locate the donor and link the donor and the patient. "When the people are in difficulty and in need of a quality blood, we try to help them by arraging for the required blood group donor. We never charge even a rupee. In fact, we spend our money to link them. On many occassions, we have arranged rare blood groups from our list even in the midnights during emergencies", says humbly Kaushik.

Every Hospital in Coimbatore have displayed the names of Kaushik and Sriram in their boards as contact for blood needs. On an average, they arrange 25 to 30 units of blood every day to various patients in different hosptals.

Kaushik is presently working as para medical staff in Ramakrishna hospital. Two years back, he donated his blood to one of the patients in the hospital where he was working. When he came out, one old lady requested him whether he could help to get a donor for particular group of blood, for an emergency patient. Since, he knew that a particular friend was having that blood group, he immediately arranged for the donor. On seeing this, another old patient, on the next day, requested Kaushik whether he could help him also with a donor. Again, he arranged for the donor within few minutes.

"The smile and sense of satisfaction on the face of the two elderly patients gave me an inspiration. I could bring happiness to two people, just with two phone calls to my friends. I thought, why should I not gather some more database of blood group of my friends and motivate them to donate blood. I started doing in a small way, for the needy patients. It gave me a sense of satisfaction and happiness", Kaushik says with emotion and tears in his eyes.

within two weeks, Kaushik met Sriram, who came to the hospital to donate his blood to one of his friends. Kaushik and Sriram shared the same feeling when they met each other. Slowly, their friendship developed and they started collecting database from their contacts. They started helping the patients by linking them with quality donors, under the name "Any Time Blood" (ATB). Now ATB has become a popular name amongst all hospitals at Coimbatore.

Sriram is doing a small business. Still he finds happiness in arranging for the blood donors for the needy patients at coimbatore. On seeing their commitment, some of the patients and their famiy members started enrolling themselves as blood donors with them. Kaushik and Sriram keep in touch with donors regularly through SMS and also over phone.

At Coimbatore alone, they have networked more than 3000 committed blood donors, who also bring in their friends in this network.

" hardly 5% of the people call back and thank us for our timely support and volunteer to join this network. Most of the others, just return home even without saying a thanks to us. For getting the blood donor, they used to contact us many times, even while we try to arrange the donor. The moment, the job is done, they may not even call back to confirm this. Many times, we will get the information either from the hospital or from the donors themselves. " says Sriram sadly. "That does not prevent us from this task. Whether somebody recognises us or not, we continue to help the patients at their critical time" says Sriram proudly with a sense of satisfaction.

Appeal

If any of the readers or their friends , particularly from Tamilnadu, are interested to be a blood donor, please send SMS to Kaushik or Sriram over mobile 98943 95495 or 98431 93014 furnishing (1) name, (2) town and (3) the blood group details. They will enroll in their list and they would get in touch with them, in case of need. They should comply with the eligibility of blood donation, healthwise. Or the readers can also send mail to anytimeblood@gmail.com with the above details.

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Bihar Flood Relief Work by Brahma Kumaris & GHRC

RajaYogi BK Karunaji karuna@godis1.com reports:

Chief Administrative Head Dadi Janki, Bro. Nirwair ji and Dr. Pratap Bhai took keen interest to set up the Relief work so that the necessary help can be extended to the flood effected brothers and sisters of Bihar. Dadi Janki ji gave special blessings for "Ruhani service" in addition with all other required services. She hosted a flag in Shantivan to the Flood Relief Ambulance Team.


Global Hospital and Research centre, Mount Abu has joined hands to carry out Flood Relief activities together with Brahma Kumaris in whatever possible requirement. Our representative from Mount Abu BK Banarasi Lal , Bipin Patel (Nadiad) with BK Rani, Sub-zone In-charge of North Bihar, Brahma Kumaris visited flood effected areas and relief camps in Saharsa, Madhepura and Supaul district. We have found that lakhs of people are yet in village area covered by water.

Distribution of cloths, Sattu, Biscuits, Chura was carried out during visits of Camps and also in different areas of flood effected. Ambulances with Medical group have also arrived from Global Hospital which has started to distribute the medicine in flood affected areas.

We have decided to work in following main areas :

1. The position of children is very bad. We have decided to reach upto maximum number of children of flood affected area and would distribute cloths, biscuits and nutrition food. This is the main target of our work.

2. Medical treatment is one the main requirement of this area. We will extend our medical services for possible longest period.

3. Counseling – Large numbers of families have lost their members in addition with their animals and valuable livelihoods. Their mental position is not good. We have decided to render counseling services through different Shivirs and Mega Camps. We have started these services in Saharsa and would extend the same in different area of Supaul and Madhepura.

4. With above 3 particular services, we will also distribute food, cloths, chatai, utensils etc. supplied by our different branches of India.

Many numbers of local BK Brothers and sister of Bihar state have joined their hands for effective and successful relief work under the leadership of BK Rani of Muzaffarpur. Thus our Flood Relief activity is started in Bihar from 9.09.08

RajaYogi BK Karunaji Mobile: +91 9414153999

karuna@godis1.com

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Dr Chandragupta has organised 385 dental camps for poor people single handedly

In this site, we will be featuring the people, who are silently contributing towards realising Vision 2020 of Dr Kalam. In this edition, we are featuring Dr Chandragupta, who has been silently conducting free health camps to the poor people every week for the past eight years. So far, he has conducted 385 such free dental health programmes covering people in orphanages, oldage homes, government schools, destitute homes, slums and physically challenged people across Chennai. So far, he has covered more than 2 lakh people, including children, as a single person.

Dr Chandragupta completed his graduation from AECS Maaruti Dental College, Bangalore University, Bangalore, in September 1998. Even while studying in the College, he used to take active role in the dental camps organised by the College.

In 1999, as an intern, he was posted to Gudalur Advivasi Hospital at Nilgris. There he was serving exclusively the Adivasis, who live inside the forests of the Nilgris district. That experience made him to think of organsing free dental camps to the poor people.

When he started his practice in 2000, he added the 'free dental programme' as part of his agenda and he continues to do so till date, without break.

Even from the childhook, Dr Gupta wanted to do something good for the society. Even during his school days i used to volunteer for all the programmes , including scout, gardening and tree planting, etc. Even today, whenever he visits the educational institutions for dental camp, he requests the Management to permit him to plant some tree samplings involving the students.

When we asked him about his future plans, he says, "My future plan is to set up a fully equipped mobile dental van of my own; form a team of like minded doctors and visit all the surrounding villages, towns and suburban areas of chennai. As of now i have only been doing screening and giving a lecture on dental hygiene and showing them a brushing demo, as doing treatment then and there is ofcourse is a very difficult task and needs lot of planning and invloves lot of funds. Hence, basically i concentrate on creating awareness among the rural public on the importance of dental hygienes. and preventive dentistry"

He wants to continue his mission silently as long as he can, with the graces of God.

Dr Chandragupta can be reached at sharathchandragupta@gmail.com and mobile 9884128209

His website : www.drguptadentalcare.com

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India Vision 2020 cycle rally terminates at IIT, Chennai

By K. Srinivasan

Four youngsters from Pollachi (near Coimbatore in Tamilnadu), Anand, Geethesh G. Pillai, TT. Giridharan and R Mohan started their "India Vision 2020 cycle rally" on 15th August 2008 from Pollachi. While Anand was cycling, the others were escorting him through out the journey. They travelled 2020 KM during this rally covering 60 villages and 20 schools/colleges. Their mission was to create awareness about India vision 2020 amongst the rural people and also to promote environmental awareness.

The rally terminated at Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai on 5th September 2008 (happend to be the Teachers Day). They were received by enthusiastic NSS Volunteers of IIT, Chennai in the evening. Few members from India Vision Group and Partner Organisations were also present, to receive them.

Anand, who was driving the cycle all through 2020 km spoke to the IITians about the need for protecting the environment. K. Srinivasan, Moderator of India Vision Group, while appreciating the initiative taken by Anand, explained as to how the IITians, who were the 'Intellectual properties' of our Nation could contribute to the Nation in their own way. Kalam Nagappan, Founder of Young Helping Minds and a partner organisation of India Vision Group shared the success story of his team, consisting of students from various colleges.

I was impressed with the enthusiasm shown by the young IITians, who wanted to join the India Vision platform to be part of Nation building. I was further impressed when N Ganesh, a third year Electrical Engineering Under Graduate student told me that he would prefer to stay back in India to become an entrepreneur and to generate employment opportunities. In these days, when many of the IITians prefer to settle down in developed countries, it was heartening to see few people like Ganesh and his team with a National outlook.

After meeting Anand, Ganesh and their team in the IIT, Chennai campus, I returned home with a happy feeling that future of India is in safe hands.

In the picture below, Anand and his team with IITians:

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