The start of the month witnessed a highly motivating lecture by Ms Shukla Bose, founder, CEO of Parikrma Humanity Foundation on the topic “One step at a time”.
After two decades in the rarefied upper echelons of the corporate world as the MD of Resort Condominiums India, Shukla Bose quit a high-flying job to help the slum children of Bangalore. Investing all her life’s savings to launch the Parikrma Humanity Foundation, she plunged into her mission to empower her wards through the provision of equal opportunity education in English.
Her opening words caught the audience off guard. “I am not comfortable standing at podium and talking to and sitting audience. I am a grass root practioner who walks through streets and slum areas and lets her work do the talking. However, I accepted this invitation from the EML team of IIT Madras to give a lecture on my journey as a social entrepreneur because I believe today’s youth has tremendous potential to bring about a change in our country. And I don’t want them to make the same mistakes as I did when I started out.”
She described her journey as eventful- at times frustrating but extremely enriching. She chose to work on one child at a time such a procedure was far more feasible and effective instead of working with masses. Fulfilling dreams and unleashing the latent potential of 800 million underprivileged children has become a purpose of her life. Continuing on the same issue, she stressed on the importance of the purpose of life and factors which influence the same. Power of enthusiasm, power in odds, power to stand up against in justice, power of resolution and the power of death are a few to name. She almost stunned the audience into silence by these words. “I was mentally writing my obituary.” she said. “I had power, exposure, experience and respect. Yet, I felt that eventually I would be doing the same thing, over and over again here. I got restless, as I wanted to make a difference to society, leave a lasting legacy.”
After that she spoke about her maiden entrepreneur venture, Parikrma. Parikrma is a 360-degree development program (3DP) that gives the slum children the ability to compete on equal terms, enabling them to break their cycle of poverty. It provides the children with a complete education; the empowerment in English enables them to compete with children from some of the best schools in India. Parikrma takes in children from the age of five and goes all the way till they start earning a living. This end to end (e2e) approach is what guarantees a high success rate. Since its initiation on 6th June 2003, the foundation now has 4 schools and 1 junior college across the country.
There was a short video screening on the children of Parikrma which showcased their talent and achievements which would have been impossible to be realised without Parikrma. It also showed the respective families who spoke about the wave of positive change brought in their lives by the foundation.
The immensely inspiring talk concluded with a Q &A session with the audience.
