The NGO story : An inspiring story

Following is from the IIM Calcutta website -

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This was also covered by tehelka.com.Click here
Parivaar's website can be accessed here

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Seventy-five homeless children in Kolkata have finally found their Parivaar. They have a roof over their heads, they go to school, play cricket, celebrate birthdays. Once again, they have won their childhood back, thanks to 26-year-old Vinayak Lohani.

Four years back, Lohani was at a crossroads. One path promised a smooth drive to success and the other a bumpy ride. An engineer, Lohani was working with Infosys when he joined the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. The future looked rosy and rich, and life seemed miles away from the tragedies of social reality. But Lohani took the other path — the bumpy one. The one not many dare to tread. For months, he walked the bylanes of slums and red-light areas of the city. That journey ended in the formation of Parivaar — a shelter for the homeless and abandoned children.

Parivaar helps rehabilitate orphans, street children and children of sex workers in Kolkata. Ask Vinayak why he chose Parivaar over career after IIM Calcutta, he retorts, “Are all of us sure why we want to do a particular thing and not anything else? I wonder if it really is. Societal norms set your path and give you limited choices. Like others, I too was following what was the norm — first engineering, a one-year stint at Infosys and then management. But now, looking back, I do consider myself a misfit in the IIM environment.”

It was not an easy decision. “I was discouraged by friends and well-wishers from pursuing this idea. Some did not take me seriously. But honestly speaking, there was something in me that was impelling me to do what I wanted to do,” recalls Vinayak. And so started Parivaar.

With just three children from Chetla and Kalighat, Vinayak started the journey to fulfil his dream. “For nine months, I faced humiliation. To get the money to start off things, I took up a part-time job as a faculty member in an institute, training students for management entrance exams. It was only then when people gradually started realising that I was serious about what I wanted to do,” Vinayak recalls.

Children at Parivaar have found the special magic of this unique family. They attend formal day schools and are provided evening tutorials by teachers at the shelter.
“Parivaar is just like a family. The children attend school and come back and are guided in studies by teachers here. They are broken in small groups of 5 to 10 children each. We feel if the right environment is provided any child can achieve anything through mainstream education,” says Lohani. “We are against vocational education programmes that many advocate, which have an underlying assumption that an underprivileged child is not worthy enough for long-term opportunities and thus should learn something to get two square meals. That’s not the way things should be in an egalitarian society. Without giving opportunities one cannot evaluate abilities.”

As a part of its initiative, Parivaar has been identifying vulnerable girls from red-light areas in collaborative effort with Sanlaap and CINI Asha, NGOs working in Kolkata. For such girls, Parivaar provides an alternative through education so that they do not get sucked into prostitution and therefore can look forward to a dignified life. As a result, Parivaar is looking for donors who can support about 25 of these girls whom they are planning to admit here, through the ‘Support A Child Scheme’.

Currently, over 150 IIM alumni are enrolled as donors with Parivaar under the ‘Support A Child Scheme’; they make regular contributions. As part of the future projects, Parivaar is starting one centre each in Raichak and Kharagpur in West Bengal by January 2005. Dressed in a dhoti-kurta, Vinayak is still restless. “I have achieved my goal, but that does not mean the end of my work. I have a long way to go.”
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