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From the Foundation >> Foundation in News
No such thing as quick
victories
by Azim Premji,
Chairman, Wipro Corporation
Over the
last eight years, I have had
some personal experience of engaging with social issues. The Azim
Premji
Foundation has been working with the intent to help in improving the
quality of
education in India. Wipro runs initiatives with a similar objective,
spanning
from school to college education.
Some of our programmes
are fairly
large scale, involving thousands of schools. On the other hand, some
programmes
involve only a few schools, and are designed to explore and contribute
to
specific issue in depth (eg. curricular issues, assessment methods).
Most of these programmes are run in deep partnerships with
government(s) and NGOs. We have touched over 25,000 schools &
over 200
colleges in these eight years, most of the schools are in rural India.
With my
experience I am absolutely convinced about a few things.
First, to
build a just, equitable, sustainable and humane society, we must act
with the
clear understanding that the issues and challenges facing our nation
cannot be
solved by the government alone. We as individuals, entrepreneurs and
organisations are equal participants of this democratic society, and
must play a
more active role in these systemic issues. Indeed the government can do
a lot
more and do much better on many dimensions, but equally, we must do a
lot more.
Second, giving money in the form of contributing to
‘causes’ is perhaps the usual first step towards our starting to
engage with these issues. However, the engagement becomes a lot more
meaningful
and useful if it really involves giving attention and thought to these
issues.
Often the paths to improvement require a lot more than money; they
require
careful thought and sustained energy. This is thus a combination of a
basic
attitude of ‘giving’ and ‘caring’ for what happens with
what we ‘give’.
Third, we must be prepared for the long
haul. If we want genuine change and improvement, we have to be willing
to stay
with the issues for years. I don’t think change on social issues
happens
in the same timescales as changes in the corporate world. We must
resist the
urge to report quick victories. There are no quick victories in the
arena of
social change, real positive changes can be seen only decades later.
In summary, I am convinced that each of us must deeply engage with
social issues. This engagement will happen meaningfully if we give our
attention
and thought to specific issues, in addition to giving money. We must
have the
resolve to engage with these issues for a long time, and only then will
we be
able to make the difference that we desire.
This
article appeared in The Economic Times, issue dated 23 August, 2009
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