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R HEART U O Y S E H C T H AT T O U Y L I A D G IN AN INSPIR Vol. 1 No. 17 Pages 16 PUNE, FRIDAY MAY 11, 2012 Rs.4 WEATHER Sunrise .....................06:02 Sunset ......................19:00 Moonrise .................23:23 Moonset ..................11:00 Temperature Min ...........................23 0c Max ...........................39 0c
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Dietary guidelines for working women >>P9
No jobs for Pune’s 90% physicallychallenged’ A tête-à-tête with Anita Iyer, founder of EKansh, an NGO working towards providing timely education and gainful employment to the city’s differently-abled VINITA DESHMUKH
NASA scientist now local politician
It is a real life story of Shahrukh Khan’s Bollywood movie ‘Swades’. Balasaheb Darade, a 28-year-old nanotechnology scientist who was until last year working on the NASA’s Mars Rover project, returned to his hometown in Buldhana district and fought the Zilla Parishad elections in February this year from Pangra Dole constituency. After winning with a thumping majority, he is all set to transform his rural surroundings DHEERAJ BENGRUT
Work with the Art of Living Foundation and APJ Abdul Kalam
S
cientist, entrepreneur and now politician and social reformer, Balasaheb Darade is all of 28 years and represents the ideal face of modern youth. One, who is savvy, successful, yet grounded. A small town boy from Buldhana district (a rural region located approximately 400 km away from Pune), Darade managed to achieve his greatest dreams he’d envisioned. That of becoming a nanotechnology scientist in NASA in the USA. After working on the Mars Rover project of NASA and handling his own IT firm in the US, Darade has now returned to India to serve his people. The youngster, who recently won the Zilla Parishad elections as an independent candidate from the Pangra Dole circle, Lonar Taluka, Buldhana district, is a shining ideal for today’s generation next.
am delighted to have emerged victorious by more than 50 per cent votes in the elections. I believe people voted for the honesty I reflect,” he adds.
Honest talk
In the past
Coming from a rural background, I am well-versed with the problems a farmer or a common villager faces. I was always interested in contributing to society in some way, inspiring the youth towards change, working on grassroots problem; hence I decided to join politics,” reveals Darade. “With God’s grace and people’s support, I
Darade completed his graduation in electrical engineering at the University of Cincinnati, USA, specialising in nanotechnology and organic solar cells. With the aim of offering innovative IT solutions in the market, he established ‘Relations Bridge Innovators’ in the US. After a flourishing five-yearlong stint in the US, he took
What is your
LIFE 365 daily all about?
Shankar Gram Parivartan z Working towards sustainable model villages by adhering to 12 developmental parameters: health, hygiene, food, water, shelter, education, income generation/job creation, energy, social equity, connectivity, spiritual well-being, and public domain z To freeze this developmental process in a rigid framework so that it can be used as a prototype z Empower youth and leaders in villages z Putting together a coalition of individuals, NGOs, experts, corporations in India and US
the brave decision of returning back to mother land, in 2007. “We need reformers more than social workers to bring about change in society. These days, people yearn for good and honest leadership; my goal is to provide them with just that, and develop villages, making them corruption-free,” says Darade. He is currently working towards creating sustainable model villages, contributing in the fields of youth empowerment and social entrepreneurship under the project ‘Shankar Gram Parivartan’.
Just like Pune is a city that still respects values, welcomes ideas and supports genuine efforts, Life 365 is more than just a daily. Going beyond news that has already been done to death, Life 365 rejects negativity,
Following the spiritual path, this young man also contributes as a teacher, conducting self-development and stress elimination programmes that empower people to face life’s challenges gracefully, in the Art of Living Foundation of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. He has also travelled internationally with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar for Art of Living programmes. Darade has also worked in association with former President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam on various scientific researches and activities.
Future plans To counter ill-practices and corruption, Darade wants to build youth teams in every village to ensure streamlined development and planning. “Change in the system can only be triggered by change at the individual level,” he adds matter-of-factly. He believes that even a small village can develop without the help government grants and funds if it has sound financial backing from the villagers. “I am currently focussing on completely revamping the system in the 22 villages under my elected ward,” he reveals. His heart set on the goal, come 2014, Darade has plans to contest the Lok Sabha elections.
sensationalism and superficiality in its columns. We are here to promote good values, good people and good work. As a cosmopolitan, commercial hub, the city today abounds with enlightened individuals, talented
z Life 365: Tell us about the Ekansh Trust. Anita Iyer: EKansh Trust, Pune was launched in April 2009 as a website. Since then EKansh has come alive and made much progress in its aim to spread awareness, acceptance and sensitivity towards issues related to disabilities. We also work towards mainstreaming People with Disabilities [PwD]. Education and Employment are two big points of our focus. z How do you help the physically challenged? In 2010, EKansh Trust organised a job fair for the physically challenged people where 16 large companies participated from the IT and Manufacturing sectors. This means companies are willing
to consider employing them. Out of almost 1200 candidates that attended, hardly 10% were graduates or post graduates. Most multi-national IT companies ask for graduation as the minimum requirement. That means 90% of our physically challenged people do not qualify for these jobs.
z However, the turnout for your job fair was impressive… Yes, their participation in the job fair also means that they aspire to go beyond handicrafts and manual work to look at better employment options. It is
time to analyse this situation. EKansh plans on another job fair for PwD soon but would like more understanding of all aspects before beginning to work towards it.
z What is the plight of physically challenged people in Pune today? The situation of physically challenged in Pune [verified and confirmed by other NGOs that are involved in the education and training of PwD] is as under >> We do not have a ready count of graduates >> Most candidates at our job fair were either
school or college drop outs >> Those that are graduates are not fluent in English. >> While MSCIT is being offered in different institutions, the trainers are not fluent in English. This being the case, Microsoft Word and Excel and Internet Browsing cannot be used to any satisfactory level by the candidates. >> Spelling, p r o n u n c i a t i o n , conversational skills, confidence, grooming, self esteem, etc all need to be worked upon. >> Continued on Page 5
EXTRAA You are welcome to write to Anita Iyer at ekansh.india@gmail.com /info@ekansh.org to connect with us
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