Paritraan: Our Intentions and How we plan to do it.

This Sunday, on 3rd April 2011, 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-post.

Paritraan was started by Vishal Gupta, a final year student of Information Technology during his 2nd year Engineering. Back then, he used to teach underprivileged children in his native village. In January 2011, under the guidance of Asst. Prof. Anup Kumar Keshri, of Department of IT from BIT Mesra, Paritraan began to grow in BIT Mesra. Using MSTC's resources, Paritraan got its web-presence. The growth of Paritraan was impossible without the contribution of Akhil Ranjan, 4th Year BioTech and Amritesh Kumar, 4th Year IT (2K7 Batch).

The main purpose of the group is to carry out the works of Social Services in and around Ranchi and spread it across as far as possible. Right now there are about 40 students from various streams and batches working for Paritraan by utilizing their Sundays, Holidays and Half-Days to help those who are not as fortunate as we are.

Apart from Blind Schools visits, Paritraan teams also visit various Government and Municipal schools in nearby villages to provide them proper education. Educational Trips and Digital Literacy Sessions are also organized for underprivileged children.

The main principles behind the successful outings of Paritraan are:

1. It is voluntary. There is no concept of joining. You can accompany us in our trips.
2. Since studies are of paramount importance, we generally skip trips nearer to exams. We are only planning to utilize the Sundays and holidays we usually waste lazing around in the hostel. However, a few enthusiasts still carry out the noble work even during exam times.
3. This is not a club, this is a movement, a social initiative and a Social Revolution. There are no posts like treasurer, president etc. to offer. There is no chain of command per se.However, we do encourage to take advice from Asst Prof Keshri and Senior Members of Paritraan Team.
4. Though there is no concept of donation in the form of money, a few still donate so that we can give something to the blind children. We prefer to 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 try 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 isn't just limited to 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. 
7. 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 that I have come to understand. As I see, 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".