Teach India

I will not dwell into what the ‘Teach India’ initiative is all about, but all that I’d say is that it is a social initiative which brings together children in need and anyone willing to help. You can read all about it right here and here. All I’ll write about is how this initiative of the ‘Times of India’ is seeking to change the very perception of people.

The only thing that I’ll say is that ‘Teach India’ was started in the first week of July ’08 through a campaign launched by the ‘Times of India (TOI)’. Since then, several hundred Indians have decided to be a part of this ‘Teach India’ initiative.

What surprised everyone is the fact that Indians have come forward in droves and registered on the ‘Teach India’ website to go ahead and be a part of this innovative initiative. The sheer number of people who have responded to this initiative is mind-numbing.

There is yet another, equally surprising revelation that emerged from this campaign. This surprise has to do with the group into which most of the responders fall. The greater percentage of the people who have registered for this campaign fall in the following category:

1. Young

2. Upwardly Mobile

3. Hard – working

4. Working Professionals

5. Self – employed Professionals

All these people have ‘surprisingly’ committed to spend ‘two hours’ of their already at ‘premium time’ on the weekends for ‘3 months initially’ for this initiative.

This comes as a great surprise to one and all. More so as this comes at a time when the ‘moral brigades’ across India are propagating the belief that it is the ‘young’ and ‘restless’ Indians who are spoiling the culture of our country by mindlessly aping the west. How very ‘wrong’ they were. Not only have these so called ‘young and restless’ people (myself included) taken up to the task of shouldering the responsibility of the down-trodden/lesser privileged but have also taught a moral lesson too many to these microphone brandishing demagogues.

This initiative is changing/affecting, of the many opinions, the following significantly:

1. The world about Indian youth;

2. Indian youth about itself;

3. Indian Demagogues about Indian Youth

There is a great post on ‘Teach India’ initiative by the revered columnist and journalist Ms. Bachi Karkaria in her weekly column ‘Erratica’. The heading reads as ‘Sign up for the 'Teach Neta' campaign’. It is most humorous as well as enlightening. You can read the same here.