THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a rare philanthropic gesture, a start-up incubator by a team of engineering students from National Institute of Technology (NIT), Calicut, has launched a social responsibility programme with the support of their counterparts in Jaipur and Bangalore engineering institutes.
The programme will focus on providing free education and clothing to the underprivileged in orphanages and tribal areas. For a start, the team will confine its activity in Wayanad and Attapadi in Palakkad.
The programme has been launched by a 25-member team of students at NIT, Calicut, led by Aditya Maheswari and Jagadish Manohar, third-year electrical and electronics engineering students respectively.
The team has registered jugaardlabs.org.in as a company with MSME department and it is supported legally by the Technology Business Incubator (TBI).
This start-up had earlier launched a free online repository of class notes for engineering courses as a ready reference for students.
This social initiative of the NIT team is supported by students of Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT) Jaipur, JECRC Foundation at Jaipur and Rajasthan Technical University.
"Service to society is the main objective of our programme. We found that orphanages, rural and backward areas do not have access to quality education, so we have launched a free tutoring programme at select orphanages to begin with. It will be extended to other orphanages and tribal areas in Wayanad and Attapadi," Aditya told TOI.
Free tutoring sessions for tribals in Wayanad have been planned for the launch on July 9, he said.
"We have also begun a drive to collect old clothes, unused stationery and old books in and around Kozhikode. We managed to collect tons of clothes from our initiative at NIT Calicut. We will continue to collect more and distribute them to the orphanages and the disadvantaged sections in tribal areas," he said.
Sustenance has always been a question for social enterprises, and to overcome that the team members are trying hard to engage the right people to take it forward.
"Being a non-profit organization, we seek generous support in the form of donations to extend our social responsibility programme to all disadvantaged sections," Aditya added.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a rare philanthropic gesture, a Start-up incubator by a team of engineering students of National Institute of Technology (NIT), Calicut have launched a social responsibility programme with the support of their counterparts in Jaipur and Bangalore engineering institutes. Providing free education and clothing for the underprivileged in orphanages and tribal areas will be the focus of the programme beginning with Wayanad and then Attapadi in Palakkad.
The programme is launched by a 25-member team of students of the start-up at NIT, Calicut led by Aditya Maheswari and Jagadish Manohar, third-year electrical and electronic engineering students. The team had registered Jugaardlabs.org.in as a company with MSME department and it is supported legally by the Technology Business Incubator (TBI). This start-up had earlier launched a free online repository of class notes for engineering courses as a ready reference for students.
Now, this social initiative of the NIT team is supported by students of Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT) Jaipur, JECRC Foundation at Jaipur and Rajasthan Technical University.
"Service to society is the main objective of our programme and we found that orphanages, rural and backward areas do not have access to quality education, so we have launched this free tutoring programme at select orphanages initially. It will be extended to other orphanages and tribal areas soon at Wayanad and Attapadi," Aditya told TOI on Friday. Free tutoring sessions for tribals in Wayanad is planned for launch on July 9, he said.
"We have also begun a drive to collect old clothes, unused stationary and old books in and around Kozhikode. We managed to collect over 300kgs of clothes from our drive at NIT Calicut. The drive will continue to collect more and distribute it to the orphanages and disadvantaged in tribal areas," he said.
A similar drive is slated for launch at JECRC Jaipur Campus on Saturday and the students expect to collect another 200kg of old cloth in a week, he said.
The team members have already begun free tutoring programs at orphanages which include Mukkom Muslim Orphanage, Kozhikode, Apna Ghar and Jan Kalyan Sahayata Manch at Mansarovar in Jaipur, Rajasthan and Seva Kunj Aashram at Sohanbhadra in Uttar Pradesh.
Ashish Kumar Pathak and Ajeet Kumar, both NIT Calicut third year electrical and electronics engineering students are taking classes at Seva Kunj Aashram in UP. "I am teaching English for about 100 tribal children for a month at Seva Kunj Aashram in Jaipur, it would help them in their career. We take turns and some of our team mates are taking free classes at Mukkom Orphanage in Calicut," Ashish said.
While, Aditya from NIT Calicut and Manisha Singhal, a second year Electronics and Communication Student at JECRC Jaipur are taking classes at Apna Ghar in Jaipur.
Sustenance has always been a question for social enterprises and to overcome that the team members are trying hard to extend and engage the right people to take it forward. "Being a non-profit organisation, we seek generous support in the form of donations to extend our social responsibility programme to all disadvantaged sections," Aditya says.
