The affluence of thoughts can bring substantial change in society. Can it really? Everybody wants to help the poor, everyone wants to do something for abolishing poverty, everyone is willing to help blind, deaf & dumb children, everybody is sympathetic towards the physically disabled people, everyone thinks good for the society but when opportunity knocks at the door we just ignore it.
It is rightly said that “We blame society but we forget that we are society”. We watch news about some disaster that occurred in some part of the world and feel sympathetic about it but we do not take a step to even try to ameliorate the situation of the victims. However, nowadays, there is always a section of society which has been emerging, which not only thinks but also takes steps for the betterment of the society.
In line with this vision of doing its bit for the society, like-minded students of IIM Raipur came up with an interest group that eventually turned into a club called Kartavya. As the name suggests, it instils a sense of responsibility in the students towards the sensitive issues of the society. As budding managers and emerging leaders from a prestigious business school, the students come up with optimal solutions to serve the society in a better way with constrained resources but imperturbable willpower. The club is a joint effort of the students to bring about a positive change in the society, be it for the conservation of environment or for community development and involvement.
The club organises a wide range of activities for community development and the list is ever emerging. Starting from Pratigya, annual oath taking ceremony to inculcate good work ethics in the future managers of the country, it has come a long way to conduct events of national outreach. The biggest event carried out in this academic year was RAAHAT, a collection drive conducted in December 2015 for Chennai flood victims. The essentials were transported to a relief camp via Hyderabad with the help of Rotary Club of Raipur and Goonj, a national NGO. One of the recent events was Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, a national campaign by Government of India which covers 4041 statutory cities and towns, to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country.
Other events include Self Defence Training for school girls. After the training, the students felt confident of protecting themselves and were aware of how to respond to different situations and not being helpless. Another initiative was Secret Santa, which was a visit to a local orphanage that is managed by SOS. The happiness on the faces of the children on seeing a Santa Claus distributing gifts to them on Christmas Eve was extremely rewarding and overwhelming. The club also focuses on organising periodic health camps, blood donation camps, eye camps and organ donation camps. It also proposes to organise more and better-serving activities for the society in the upcoming year.
So what do we achieve in serving the society? Is it happiness on seeing that little kid’s smile on receiving the Christmas gift or is it that loving hug from an old lady in the old age home who is deprived of son/daughter to take care of? Is it a sense of pride in educating the less privileged through nukkad nataks or is it the sense of courage and strength derived from blood donation camps and Raahat (flood relief campaign)? The feeling is beyond all these that give us the single most important thing in life – Satisfaction. The rippling effect our activities is immense positivity that is encouraging everyone at IIM Raipur campus to serve the needy and continually put efforts to spread the message of Kartavya- the sense of responsibility.
For all of us at IIM Raipur, the notion behind CSR is - 'CSR is not a charity, but a necessity!'