Fifteen-year-old Shama Parveen is here to narrate her story. It?s the story of a gruesome childhood with her parents losing to life?s miseries and she losing them in the process. But she doesn?t scare you by narrating the atrocities she has faced over the years, especially during the early years of her adolescence. Now things are a lot better. She is comfortable at the Jahangirpuri shelter in Delhi run by Prayas and supported by Microsoft India, where her other friends with sad pasts are also thriving today. Most of these children here have gone through tough times and a few have been raped by their fathers and uncles. But on a visit to this shelter, what one cannot miss is a positive and contagious ?never-say-die? spirit. An initiative of the IT major, rightly named Project Jyoti, it aims to do even more than creating a handful of humane stories, promises Vikas Goswami, lead CSR, Microsoft India.
Started in August 2004, Project Jyoti has till date trained more than 50,000 youth in computers through 11 NGOs at its 686 Community Technology Learning Centres across 20 states and Union Territories. The programme has been empowering women, rural communities and exploited youth through information and communication technologies. Some of its beneficiaries include chikankari women workers of Lucknow and fishing communities of Pondicherry who now know how useful IT is to their livelihood. The effectiveness of the programme reflects in the personality of the individuals, who today?feel accepted?as able contributors to the society and empowered to live a meaningful life.
Doing so much was never easy in a diversified society. Handicaps included literacy and language, which made Microsoft India work on simple-to-understand and practical software and textbooks. Thanks to this curriculum, today these children not only know what a computer is, but are also fit to run country?s finest offices. ?Many of our students are working with companies like Hutch and Pizza Corner as data entry operators and account executives,? says H N Sahay, director, Prayas, which associated with Project Jyoti only last year.
For Sahay, the real contribution from corporate India goes beyond finance. ?The best input from the corporate world is the way they handle any project, whether marketing or social. The interest to involve, right from the company to individual employees, is high. When our children come across these professionals, their minds too get enlightened. Then these children, who once faced gross personal problems, start thinking of careers, better living standards and passing on the same to others,? he says.
Goswami believes the change is healthy for India Inc too. ?We talk aggressively about shortage of manpower to run our offices, but fail to find a solution. I think enabling the untouched and unconnected youth to surface and become part of the society could be a way. Also, many of these children later volunteer to help others in need. I think, from here, begins the real social change,? she says.