Paritraan: How we plan to do it

I visited St. Micheal’s School for the blind, near Bahu Bazaar(Ranchi), with a few of my friends. I am posting this blog for those people who are interested to join Paritraan, to inform them about the main ideas which lie behind our activities. In short this is a blog about the how and the how not. If you are interested in the why and why not please visit Vishal Gupta’s blog http://networkedblogs.com/g0JHJ.

Paritraan was started by Vishal Gupta, a final year student of Information Technology under the guidance of prof. Anoop Kumar Keshri about a month ago. The sole purpose of the group is to carry out the work of social service in and around Ranchi. Right now there are about 20 students from various streams and batches working for Paritraan by utilizing their Sunday’s to help those who are not as fortunate as we are. The main principles behind the successful outings of Paritraan are

1. It is voluntary. You can join whenever you want to and choose to withdraw from volunteering whenever you want to. No one will force you physically or emotionally.
2. There will be no volunteering during the period close to exams. Studies are of paramount importance. We are only planning to utilize the Sundays and holidays we usually waste lazing around in the hostel.
3. This is not a club, this is a movement. There are no posts like treasurer, president etc. to offer. There is no chain of command per se. All work is carried out with the advice, suggestion and/or permission of prof. Anoop Kumar Keshri.
4. There is no concept of donation in the form of money. We do not donate money. We only donate 2-3 hours of time a week to help. The best example is an incident that happened in front of me. The students of the school wanted books/magazines with paper of better quality for them to write in Braille. A senior suggested to buy the books for them. Keshri sir prompted and said that it would be better if we collected books from the common room than put in money from our pockets.
5. We will not interfere in the management of the schools/institutions we visit. The main logic here is that we have no basis to criticize the work of people who work in these institutions or to tell them what to do. We do not work for these institutions but we work on our own with their permission. At the same time we ensure all the benefits of our labour and contributions go to the people who actually need it.
6. The type of work we do doesn’t necessarily involve teaching. We try our best to provide Engineering like solutions to the problems faced by people who are usually neglected by the society. For example we also plan to guide the students of the school about the career options they have after they pass out of the school. We listen to the problems they are facing and try to solve them with things we can do in our free time. Some students in the school wanted to know how to apply for the position of radio jockey in radio stations or as announcers in railway stations. Our seniors were fast to google out some information on the availability of positions for the physically handicapped in some government organizations.

These are just some of the main ideas behind Paritraan. The main goal will always be to strive to help those who need help and to contribute in such a way that our hard work is beneficial for them.

Paritraan in Sanskrit means "To bring relief from the cause of distress".