Bringing good things to people

Corporate social responsibility seems to be a mandatory practice adopted by almost all companies. But at General Electric India (GE), CSR is being handled in a different way. GE had adopted an NGO called Vidya which has been educating underprivileged children for the past 18 years.

GE's association with Vidya began when 15 employees of GE India started mentoring school children and helping them in clearing their 10th and 12th standard examinations.

Says Rekha Singh, in-charge of a centre managed by Vidya. "We focus on improving education and training access to children from underprivileged sections of society."

Vidya approached GE three years ago with a request that some of its employees mentor these students. This involved the mentors coming to the Vidya campus every Saturday.

Says Singh, "They were required to spend at least half an hour with the students and to help in their studies and counsel them on other issues." Vidya runs two centres in Delhi: one in Sainik Farms while the other is in Kidwai Nagar.

The students say that the mentorship programme conducted by GE employees has helped them in a big way. Santosh, who was mentored by an employee, has gone ahead and joined the Arts course at Jamia Millia.

"The mentoring involved not only studies but other personal issues as well," he says. Then there are five students who are presently working with GE.

Almost all the students who were mentored have opted for higher studies. Currently, a total of 15 mentors are involved in the project, most of whom are employees of the treasury division of the company. The number of mentors keeps on fluctuating as some employees join but can't continue for too long.

Says Aruna Sharma, head, human resources, GE, "Apart from mentoring the students, the GE Fund provides almost Rs 15 lakh per year to run the centres." The company also provides meals, school uniforms, computers for the school, and so on.

Vidya also conducts a Bridge course which helps dropouts prepare for public secondary board examinations through the open school system. Apart from education, Vidya offers vocational courses too (art and designing, pottery and computer courses).