Social Development Projects - A Mandatory Project Course in PGP Curriculam

Background:

Social Development Project (SDP) is a mandatory Project Course that PGP students have to undertake in their PGP curriculum. This is in line with the vision statement of IIMK, "To create a unique academic space of global reckoning, nurturing the finest management thinking, creating innovative, futuristic, socially responsible and environmentally sensitive practitioners, leaders and educators". A Workshop and Fair is held each year as a part of SDP. The Workshop and Fair is in continuation with very successful SDP Workshops that has been held from 2014 onwards and has got institutionalized in IIMK as one of the Core Institutional Processes under SDP. Under these Workshops, we have initiated more than 300 NGO Projects and around 100 Projects from Local Self Governments, Utilities and so on.

The purpose of this course is to offer students an opportunity to inculcate social responsibility and environmental sensitivity by bridging community-institution gaps by working actively towards creating social good. SDPs provide an opportunity for students to advance their learning while working with organizations and people, who work for social welfare. Such organizations operate from social benefit perspective. They are often unable to manage their strategic and managerial challenges to ensure sustainability and scalability of their efforts. The objective of social development project (SDP) is to help such organizations and people in their efforts. In the process, students get an opportunity to appreciate and understand the problems of organizations working for social welfare. Our partnership in their initiatives creates a win-win situation for both the constituencies, viz. the students and faculty as well as the organizations working in the social sector.

These organizations consist of not-for-profit initiative in both governmental and non-government organizations (NGOs). We work with district authorities, local self-government like Panchayats, agencies of government like police, hospitals, schools, government programs like Kudumbashree, Adarsha Bharat and so on. Out of 110 Projects on offer last year, 70 are from such organizations while the remaining 40 were from NGOs. The projects taken up were from diverse areas like Healthcare, Special schools for Learning Disabilities, Sustainable Development, Women and Child issues and so on. The workshops held at IIMK had organizations like Compassionate Kozhikode, Kudumbasree, USHA School, Institute of Palliative Medicine, Koodaranhi Gram Panchayath, Patanjali Yoga Research Centre, CKGM Government College, Poyilkavu AUP School, Healthcare Foundation etc participating over the years. This is a synergistic initiative. While IIMK helps the organisations working in social sector in applying the institute's time-tested management thoughts to their projects, the organisations helped the IIMK learn the ground realities of society. This initiative shows that there are ways to bring components of society, which are traditionally thought to exist and operate at oppositional ends, on the same platform for win-win outcomes.

The Coordinator for the SDP is Prof. Anubha Shekhar Sinha and can be contacted at anubhashekhar@iimk.ac.in. The SDP Officer is Mr. Alek P and can be contacted at alekhp@iimk.ac.in.

Achievements:
Computer Hardware and Soft-skills Training at Government Girls' and Boys' Home
 

Children (both Boys and Girls) homes are under District Legal Services Authority, Social Justice Department, Kozhikode and is situated in the Gender Park, Vellimadukunnu, Kozhikode. They house destitute children and children in need of care, protection and correction under Juvenile Justice Act. Under Compassionate Kozhikode, District administration contacted us and we indulged ourselves into understanding their needs.

One of the problems shared by them was the near absence of self-motivation among children. A general feeling of lack of directions for their future prevailed. During SDP for PGP 19, we conceptualized interactive learning sessions for these children. We also felt that seeing examples of successful seniors in IIMK as elder brothers and sisters, who have done well in life, would be motivational for them. So, we planned SDP such that modules of training were done at IIMK campus, mostly by students themselves, and sometimes by IIMK faculty. Additionally, at their homes, they were shown motivational videos. IIMK students discussed entrepreneurial ideas for future with them. In a way, a concern for future and a concern for livelihood, when they grow up, were instilled in them through these interventions. In line with these initiatives, this year we devised soft skills and computer hardware training for them by PGP 20 students. The district administration showed keen interest and appreciated these initiatives.

Partnering with Local Self Governments

We met with several local self-governments and their agencies in and around Kozhikode. In general, their needs vary from requirements of helping them digitize their office environments and help in designing smooth office operations, sorting out traffic issues and identifying future growth possibilities, facilitating waste management, farming and assistance in marketing farm product issues of local farmers, employability of youth and skill training and so on. Around 20 such projects have been initiated by IIMK over the years. We have worked with Mukkam, Kunnamangalam, Payyoli, Koodaranhi, Chhatamangalam Panchayat/Municipality in last few years.

Educating the Educators: Partnering up with Government Schools in and around Kozhikode

We have worked with several government schools and colleges in the past few years. Their problems center around getting the students encouraged to utilize their full potentials in their respective area of interest and developing a futuristic orientation in them. We felt that lack of awareness and interest groups were some of the major impediments. Teachers felt that they were required to cover their given syllabus in time and with due diligence. Students understood that they were expected to attend classes. There was a gap in their basic motivations in coming together, most of the time. Therefore, creation of clubs centered on areas of interests like quizzing, literature, history, placement activities and so on and imparting trainings in many of these areas by IIMK students has been the mode of intervention in these schools and colleges.

Centre for Research & Education for Social Transformation (CREST):

Established with the vision of creating a just, equitable and caring society through empowerment of the marginalized and underprivileged, based on the principles of humanism, equality and social justice. IIMK incubated the Centre of Excellence, the predecessor institution of the CREST.

PRISM:

Promoting Regional Schools to International Standards through Multiple Intervention (PRISM) project, an initiative to improve the infrastructure and overall environment of government schools. It was started with the help from an SDP project at IIMK. Later on, Kerala government took on this model as an ideal to emulate across government schools of Kerala and kept an allocation of 100 Crore in their budget.