Our humble beginning: Social Development Projects Cell

“Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy, the moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days, my friends, will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves, to our fellow men.” - Franklin D Roosevelt

Ever since my first day at Teach For India, a non-profit organization working in the field of education for the under-privileged, I have been consumed by the thought of how the collective intelligence of the privileged few can help India become a better place for our countrymen. 


Today, as I write the first post on this blog out of my hostel room at the Indian Institute of Management at Rohtak, I feel immense joy at the possibilities of what all my intelligent,resourceful and "best amongst the best" friends at IIM Rohtak can do for the communities both now and later. 


We initiated this group with an overwhelming response from 33 students from my batch and encouragement coupled with direction from the senior batch. It has been a pleasure interacting with the senior batch particularly in this regard for most of them are very keen on shaping the college as one of the top management schools known for its focus on developing managers with strong social development foundations. 


To that effect, Our Social Development Cell has two-fold objectives -

• a) Community Development Initiatives in Rohtak, Haryana -  Teams are researching and making field visits to local NGOs for understanding how we can be of help to them.
• b) Live consulting projects across India - Another team is engaged in finding live projects in the field of devising strategies for various non-profits, public enterprises and consulting organizations working in the field of social development.

While, (a) aims to give us an first-hand experience and exposure to handle local issues, (b) lets us apply our management knowledge and collective intelligence to tackling some of the key issues in the social space by partnering  with different organizations as knowledge/thought partners.


Initially, our team members were apprehensive of their first step (as most of people are!), but eventually their passion to work for the society and commitment to learn and enhance personal skill sets in this field made them pursue the community visits in Rohtak (Haryana).
However, Once our teams made field visits to local NGOs in the last couple of days they brought back a wealth of knowledge and invaluable experiences. Debriefing with the group two days back, I was reminded of my first few days at Teach For India - when we are given an object (or a toy) and we are supposed to venture into the communities (completely new to us - linguistically and socially!) and "connect" with a child. Such experiences not only bring out the best in me as a human being but also made me aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Well, the take-aways are subjective!


We at the Social Development Projects Cell will henceforth share our experiences and our knowledge of working with the communities and on live projects. We would also provide updates on our progress as we move forward in our tryst to becoming socially-conscious managers. 


As we embark on our journey we solicit your good wishes, blessings and constructive feedback.