“Their thinking that they can create many more development workers like Vasanti by inspiring them and the amount of efforts they are putting even in their old age left me speechless. It was a really fulfilling day where I not only got to organise a different awareness program but also could meet such a rare couple.”
The first time I visited Kakinada was for participating in a program in the Ideal College there around 13 years back. In association with the local Kuchibhatla Vasanti Foundation, Ideal College organised a seminar for its students to increase their awareness on the employment opportunities in the development sector. I and my-then-senior colleague Vijay Bhaskar went to Kakinada to organise the event under his leadership.
There were around 200 students. They were doing graduation and post-graduation. To begin with, when we asked them in which sector they would like to work in, not even one spoke about the development sector. Actually, since it wasn’t recognised as an employment sector, it wasn’t a surprise that many of the students didn’t know about it.
Even now the preconceived notion among many people is that if one is working in a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) or a corporate foundation, then they must be distributing basic necessities to the poor for free. Upon asking some of the students if they knew what work the staff at voluntary organisations do, they also replied that they collect funds from the rich or those willing to give and donate what the poor and the poorest of the poor want – our Bhargav sir used to call it “the Shirdi Sai Baba School of Thought.”
After looking at the narrow understanding regarding development sector among the students, we had realised how crucial our task was; so, our responsibility had increased two-fold. We explained to them in detail that the service sector isn’t a sector that just gives freebies to the poor. That NGOs carry out a wide variety of programs in many critical areas in the country, including providing education and health services, control of diseases like HIV/ AIDS, protection of the rights of dalits and the tribals, environmental protection; women empowerment, etc.; In addition to that, we spoke about what kind of human resources are needed to do those programs, the sort of training and, more importantly, passion they need. We also elaborated on the kind of educational qualifications and trainings needed to work in this field.
I also observed that many students had the opinion that anybody can work in the social service sector. Just like in any other field, working in this sector also needs some special skills and training. In fact, the social and financial problems that development workers work on are very complex and long-standing. We managed to demonstrate to the students that day how providing solutions for these kinds of problems needs even more polished skills.
After the seminar ended that day, Vijay Bhaskar took me to the house of Sri Kameswar Rao. He was the founder of the Kuchibhatla Vasanthi Foundation and the organiser of the seminar. I found it incredible that at the age of 70, he and his wife Ms. Jyothirmayi thought of sparking students’ interest towards the development sector and organised that seminar. I said the same to him. He then proceeded to tell me about the reason behind that thought and the story behind the founding of Vasanti Foundation. Their daughter Vasanti had been a smart and bright student. With a keen interest in working in the social work field, she did her post-graduation in rural management at the Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) in Anand, Gujarat. Later, she passed away suddenly in an accident. My colleague Vijay Bhaskar was her classmate at IRMA.
Working for the development of rural areas had been Vasanti’s ardent desire. With the thought of continuing her ambition even after her death, Sri Kameswara Rao and his wife started this organisation to do whatever they could. Although Vasanti couldn’t work in the field that she wanted to, she has become a catalyst to spread the necessary awareness about that sector in the students of that area.
Their thinking that they can create many more development workers like Vasanti by inspiring them and the amount of efforts they are putting even in their old age left me speechless.
It was a really fulfilling day where I not only got to organise a different awareness program but also could meet such a rare couple.
Bharathi Kode