Students as Mentors

Spread over a year,the B-school students have to make 24 visits and spend 48 hours mentoring and guiding the school children- called ‘sitaras’ -in academic and non-academic areas. As of now 255 sitaras are being groomed.

The objective of the mentoring programme,according to SPJIMR,is to create a cadre of management professionals who have a better understanding of consumer behaviour,economics of slums and poverty.

The experiential learning is aimed at giving the B-school graduates better leadership and mentoriship skills.

“It is a compulsory mentorship programme for first-year PGDM students. At the heart of Abhyudaya are underprivileged but bright children living in slums who attend BMC schools. The attempt is to be the catalyst for holistic development of the child and improve quality of life of the whole family through education. It was launched in 2008 under the guidance of Dr M L Shrikant,honorary dean of SPJIMR,and the project is showing results for both mentors and sitaras. It has also brought positive changes in the family,particularly siblings of sitaras,besides neighbours. The management students develop an understanding of society’s challenges and hone their skills as mentors and managers,” said Prof Rukaiya Joshi,who heads the project.

Children from deprived sections are adopted from BMC and aided schools. It starts with students of Class VII and continues till they complete their graduation.

It focuses on holistic growth of sitaras by monitoring their academic growth,and preparing them for scholarship and competitive and other exams.

“Although B-schools focus on knowledge,attitude and skills,attitude is mostly ignored. In today’s scenario,building the right attitude among management students by sensitising them to needs of the consumer and increasing their social responsiveness are crucial. Abhyudaya aims at this. The bond the mentor and sitaras share is a life-changing experience. It enables management students to learn about the sociology of poverty. Learning about urban poverty,and its economic,social and cultural dimensions gives management students better insights into consumer behaviour. One can observe how income and spending is managed. Being close to the consumer is something you always want as a B-school student and it helps you become a better leader,” said Joshi. The project finances school fees of sitaras,provides them with uniform and books and also supports expenses related to their computer education and other academic spending. Each sitara receives Rs 15,000 annually till the time he or she completes graduation.

“For continuing this support for and commitment to our objective of 450 sitaras,we have estimated an increase in annual programme budget from the current Rs 50 lakh to Rs 2 crore by 2017,” she said.

Every year,a new batch is handed over to mentors who study strengths and weaknesses of sitaras based on which they prepare a one-year action plan.

The participants record their experiences in a diary which is evaluated periodically.

“Every year,the incoming batch is to create a space for themselves in the child’s life and gain acceptance in the family. One has to identify the role one can play to instill drive in the child. You get a lot of insight into consumer behaviour and learn patience and humility while approaching challenges,” said Manasi Batra,an SPJIMR student.

Abhyudaya also received the GMAC award,which selects 12 innovative projects of management schools globally for “big ideas to solve big problems”.