Grass-roots lessons at IIM-L

RURAL REACH: From merely helping villagers, students have now gone on to raising funds for the projects.

The Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow (IIML) doesn't believe in keeping its scholars out of touch with the reality around them. Hence five years ago, it started a programme of student social entrepreneurship called Bhavishya.

Students were encouraged to take up projects in socio-economic development of people in surrounding areas. A budget of Rs 12 lakh was granted.

Now the students want to go a step ahead. They want to be development managers but with funds generated by themselves.

Hence Animesh Saxena, a summer intern in an MNC in Gurgaon, finds himself making Powerpoint presentations of Bhavishya's projects at offices of top MNCs, asking them to have the privilege of funding one or more of Bhavishya's projects in Lucknow and surrounding areas.

"The response is great," says a gleeful Saxena. "We intend to leave a corpus for our future student members of Bhavishya so that they need not depend on funds from IIM to continue with the work."

Chakrapurva village, near the IIM Lucknow campus, has already had a taste of Bhavishya's zeal for social work.

The village has no electricity, no school, in fact, nothing to link it with the modern world. So students have held the first meeting with the block development officer to set up a gobar (cowdung) gas project in the village.

It would either be one plant per house or a giant plant for 25 families, says Saxena. The cost will be about Rs 12,000. In the interiors of Lucknow district, a team of 12 Bhavishya students is running an education campaign where students are given free tuitions.

Local volunteers are also taken to run this smoothly. An adult literacy campaign is also being run, again with volunteers.

The most ambitious project has been a partnership with Mahila Samakhya . Bhavishya got managers to help them for free to improve the net sales of their products are, says Saxena. Further, corporates even can choose one of these projects to sponsor, says Saxena.

The Bhavishya committee has six senior students and six juniors. The newcomers are trained and recruited carefully by the senior members to ensure continuity for the agenda of Bhavishya.

In fact, the idea of financial self-sufficiency was the brainchild of senior members of Bhavishya, says Saxena. "We are carrying it forward."

For more, visit
www.iiml.ac.in/student_activities/bhavishya.html