Feel good, genuine: IRMA’s toppers decide to work with poor

Gunjan Grover and K V S Chowdary, the No. 1 and 2 in their class, have opted to work with an NGO, PRADAN, in a Jharkhand village for a salary of Rs 7,000 per month. What they could have easily got was a Rs 6.3-lakh package that ITC was offering during campus placements at IRMA for its e-chaupal operations.

‘‘We were very clear. We wanted to test what we have learnt at this great institution,’’ Grover and Chowdary say in unison. They add that money was never their prime motivaton. ‘‘What matters in the end is the values one lives for.’’

Professor Sukhpal Singh, placements in-charge at IRMA, couldn’t be happier. Grover and Chowdary, he says, are success stories of the institute’s mission to bring students back to the cooperative fold. ‘‘The two NGOs, PRADAN and Seva Mandir, had even stopped coming for placements, the students would just not opt for them. But this year, on the very first day, so many refused plush corporate jobs. It’s gratifying for us,’’ says Singh. With PRADAN, Grover and Chowdary would be working as development apprentices in Gowda district of Jharkhand, building models of livelihood interventions for the poorest of the poor. Spread across five states in northern India, PRADAN helps create self-dependent communities through temporary local interventions.

Chowdary says a fat paycheck was never his dream, and is uncomfortable at being hailed as a hero because of this. ‘‘I feel it is all about the relative worth that people attribute to different things, such as money, fame, challenge, excitement etc. When the rationale behind a decision is not money, people start attributing it to motivation to serve the society and refer to it as sacrifice,’’ he says.

At the time they joined IRMA, their plans were like that of any other student in their class of 87. Grover, who took a loan from his uncle to pay the fees, pursued a course in company secretaryship. While Chowdary, who managed a scholarship, was looking forward to joining a B-school for a management degree and a corporate career.

Grover, who knew little of rural life before leaving his home in Delhi, acknowledges the change IRMA brought in them. ‘‘At the time of joining the institute, I was indifferent to working in the rural or urban sector. The stay at IRMA made me understand that the cooperative sector has a much broader and noble mission than the investor-oriented corporate one. Apart from generating economic capital, cooperatives also strive to generate social capital, that is harmony, unity and equity,’’ he says.

Adds Chowdary: ‘‘I never looked at society from this angle of voluntary and corporate organisations before coming to IRMA. But the education here made me realise that poor are poor not because they are risk-averse, as the general perception is, but because they cannot bargain on equal terms with those whose basic needs are already fulfilled and who want to maximise their desires at the cost of the poor. It would be my challenge to see if I can help them meet their basic needs so that they can also take risk along with others.’’

And before one dismisses the two as naive youth living in a make-believe world, both have plans chalked out of where they want to be in the next 10 years. Grover sees himself as developing new projects in micro enterprises and cottage industries, while Chowdary would want to promote viable institutions and design saleable projects that could significantly impact local economies and improve livelihood opportunities.