Young Achievers Target Community Goals

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: I met only four of them. Abhishek Dalmia, Ravi Khanna, Jayakumar Ramdass and Yash Manoj Handa—all are young achievers in business and corporate world. In fact, there are 2,200 in all, with an average age of 31-32. Beyond business and profession, they all dream to do something for the society they live in. And they want to do it before they attain the age of 40. For, at 40, every one will have to retire paving way for younger achievers to join in. That’s the rule of their association, namely Round Table India (RTI).

So, twice a year they gather together to discuss social problems and how to solve them with their own effort and money. But it was not until 1998 that the tablers of RTI felt that the widespread illiteracy, particularly among underprivileged children, lies at the core of all social ills. ‘‘Beginning 1998, we have undertaken a long term national project, called Freedom Through Education, which aims at providing primary education facilities to at least one million underprivileged children across the country by 2005,’’ explains Jayakumar Ramdass, national president (2002-03), RTI. ‘‘This will be done,’’ he adds, ‘‘through multi-pronged programmes such as constructing new school buildings in areas where there is no school nearby; renovating and rebuilding old school buildings, which have become unsuitable; constructing additional classrooms to accommodate more children; providing safe drinking water and constructing or refurbishing hygienic toilets in schools, and providing accessories such as blackboards, tables and benches, sports equipment, mid-day meals, uniforms, lighting facilities, etc.’’

However, RTI itself doesn’t run the schools it builds. ‘‘In most of the cases, we work with the local administrative bodies or non-government organisations (NGOs),’’ chips in Ravi Khanna, RTI’s national convenor (2002-03), who is also the director of BizTech Consultant, a Delhi-based software consulting company.